Rebecca at the Well

Rebecca is depicted in the foreground in elegant Mannerist attire, leaning over a stone well to haul a rope and a decorative vessel. In the background, a caravan of camels and figures represents the arrival of Eliezer, who has come to find a bride for Isaac. The engraving exhibits the characteristic swelling and tapering lines used by the artist to create volume and texture.

Hendrick Goltzius was the leading figure of the Haarlem Mannerists, a circle influenced by humanist scholarship and spiritualist movements. This print, featuring a moralizing verse by the humanist scholar Cornelis Schonaeus, reflects the group's interest in presenting biblical narratives through a lens of classical aesthetic theory and moral philosophy.