Rebecca at the Well 1562 - 1572

This silver plate, made around the mid-16th century by the artist known only as P.M., depicts the scene of Rebecca at the Well. It’s a biblical story about a woman’s simple act of kindness that leads to her marriage to Isaac and a place as matriarch of the Israelite people. The image creates meaning through visual codes that would have been easily readable to a 16th-century audience. Consider how religion saturated daily life at this time. This plate was made during the Reformation, and images like this would have played an important role in religious education. The plate’s small size suggests it was a domestic item, something used in the home as a display of wealth and religious devotion. To better understand this object, we can research how metalwork functioned in the 16th century. Who was buying it? How did it circulate? And what did images like this mean in the context of the Reformation? By understanding the social and institutional context, we can appreciate how art carries meaning that is contingent on its time.