Saint Agnes 

Adam Elsheimer made this pen and brown ink drawing of Saint Agnes in the early 17th century, when the Catholic Church was still reeling from the challenge of the Protestant Reformation. Agnes, a virgin martyr of the early church, is most often depicted with a lamb, alluding to her purity and sacrifice. This sketch, with its tentative lines and washes, might have been a preparatory study for a painting, perhaps commissioned for a private devotional space. Looking at it through a social lens, we can ask, what was the role of the church in commissioning art at this time, and how did that affect its production? What was the place of women, and especially female saints, in the religious imagination of the period? How might the relative intimacy and informality of this sketch reflect new trends in personal piety? Answering these questions requires us to dig into archives, theological texts, and the biographies of artists and patrons. Doing so reveals how deeply art is embedded in the social and institutional contexts of its time.