Christus geneest een blinde 1534 - 1535

Georg Pencz made this engraving of Christ healing the blind, sometime in the first half of the 16th century, probably in his native Germany. It is striking how Pencz has updated a scene from the Bible to comment on social structures in his own time. On the left is the blind man. With his contemporary Northern European clothing, he could easily be a local peasant. But it is the men on the right that reveal most about the picture’s social purpose. With their fine robes, they represent the educated elite, maybe even university professors! They gesture in disbelief, as if they can’t quite believe the miracle they are witnessing. While Pencz's print serves to illustrate a biblical episode, the narrative encourages the contemporary viewer to consider and ultimately accept the possibility of divine intervention in everyday affairs, despite any learned scepticism. The historian's role is to consider how that message was received in its time, researching theological debates, religious art, and the social function of printed images. We see how art constantly reshapes the culture in which it appears.