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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
A monumental female figure stands in a dramatic, sweeping pose against a vast landscape, holding the tools used in her famous execution of an enemy general. In the lower left background, a smaller narrative scene depicts her driving a tent peg into the temple of the sleeping Sisera inside a tent. The engraving is characterized by the swelling and tapering line work that defined the virtuoso style of the Haarlem Mannerists.
This work represents the 'Power of Women' theme popular in Northern Humanism, where biblical heroines were viewed as allegories of Virtue or divine intervention. Hendrick Goltzius and his circle in Haarlem were deeply influenced by Neoplatonism, often viewing the artist's technical mastery as a reflection of divine creative power.
HG. excud. Transfigens Sisarę clauo caua tempora Jahel, Æternum e tanto pectore nomen habet.
Translation
HG. excud. Piercing Sisera’s hollow temples with a nail, Jael Has an eternal name from such a breast.
Karel van Mander
Van Mander was a close associate of Goltzius whose writings framed the artist's technical brilliance within a Neoplatonic and humanist intellectual framework.
Object
Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem
Engraving
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12102/a5df2796-aa1f-268f-2a93-7bef431032e9
Public domain
2320 × 3634 px
de0d3f4a5245863e55798b38a10c590c68cdb8b6
April 21, 2019
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.