Den forkrøblede gamle dame, som helbredes af Jesus 1594

Jan Saenredam made this engraving of the healing of the crippled woman in around 1600. We see the old woman in the foreground, the lines of the engraving emphasizing her hunched back and the strain in her arm as she leans on a cane. The setting is a temple or church. The figures in the background, perhaps scribes or Pharisees, observe the scene with skepticism. Saenredam's image encapsulates a key theme in the Gospels: that Jesus's ministry was directed at the poor and the marginalized, and was often at odds with established religious authority. The image gives us an insight into the religious and social tensions of the artist's time. Saenredam was working in the Netherlands during the early stages of the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, and prints like this one often carried a coded message of resistance to political and religious oppression. To understand such images fully, we need to look at the wider political and religious context in which they were made, using sources such as pamphlets, sermons, and other visual materials.