Jael

Jael is depicted in a powerful Mannerist pose with muscular limbs and swirling drapery against a mountainous landscape. In the lower-left corner, a secondary scene inside a tent shows the death of Sisera, while a circular border contains a Latin verse describing the event. The artist uses varied line thickness and hatching to create a sense of volume and dramatic movement typical of the late 16th-century Dutch style.

This print belongs to a series on Old Testament heroes and heroines by Hendrick Goltzius, a central figure in the Haarlem Mannerist circle. These figures were often interpreted as moral or political allegories of virtue and divine intervention, reflecting the intellectual climate of the Dutch Revolt and the philosophical interest in the 'Power of Women' trope.