Wandtapijt met de interventie van Artemis tijdens de voorbereiding van het offer van Iphigeneia c. 1648 - 1662

Pieter de Cracht’s tapestry depicts the dramatic moment of Artemis' intervention in the sacrifice of Iphigenia. At the heart of this scene, the altar—originally intended for a human offering—now holds a deer, a potent symbol of substitution and divine mercy. Artemis’s gesture of salvation mirrors ancient motifs of divine intervention, echoing in earlier depictions of winged figures delivering mortals from fate. This symbolic substitution taps into a deep-seated human desire to evade the inescapable, reflecting our collective anxieties about destiny and mortality. The emotional intensity of the scene—Agamemnon's conflicted stance and Iphigenia's relief—engages viewers on a visceral level. Note how the averted gaze and the sacrificial animal recur in later art, such as Caravaggio’s “Sacrifice of Isaac.” Artemis’s intervention shows the cyclical nature of symbols, perpetually resurfacing in art, evolving, and taking on new meanings through time.