Jodocus van Winghe made this pen and brown ink drawing depicting a scene from the Old Testament. Winghe was a Flemish painter working at the end of the 16th century, at a time when the institutions of the Catholic Church were in crisis, due to the rise of Protestantism. The story he tells here is from the Book of Numbers, in which Phineas kills an Israelite man and a Midianite woman who were in the act of having sex, thereby stopping a plague sent by God to punish the Israelites. The painting can be seen as participating in debates about religious and social norms. The image creates meaning through its dramatic composition, its use of light and shadow, and its depiction of violence and passion. It shows an investment in a kind of moralizing that would have been welcomed by some viewers. To understand more fully the role of art in the Reformation, you could consult theological texts from the period and the records of art academies. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.