Masker met twee slangen die uit de oogkassen kijken 1555

This is Frans Huys’s engraving of a mask with two snakes emerging from the eye sockets. Executed sometime in the mid-16th century, this print emerges from a moment of immense cultural and religious upheaval in Europe. Huys was working in Antwerp, a city at the crossroads of artistic innovation and religious conflict. His work reflects the anxieties of the time, but also, perhaps, a sense of the grotesque. The mask, a symbol of concealment, is here made monstrous. The snakes, symbols of temptation and deceit, replace the eyes, suggesting a world where appearances are not only deceiving but actively malevolent. Consider what it might have meant to visualize such a disturbing image in a society grappling with questions of faith, identity, and morality. The emotional impact of this piece lies in its unsettling combination of the familiar and the horrifying, a reflection of a society in turmoil.