Naakte vrouw met vijf boezems 1665

Hendrik Bary made this engraving, titled *Naked Woman with Five Breasts*, in the Netherlands sometime between 1640 and 1707. At first glance, this appears to be a classical scene. The nude woman is standing on a pedestal, seemingly being revealed to a crowd of onlookers. But the five breasts mark her out as an allegorical figure, perhaps representing abundance or nature. It's hard for us to grasp the image's meaning today without understanding the print culture of the Dutch Golden Age. This was a time of intense social and economic change, and prints were a key way of disseminating information and ideas. They were displayed in people's homes, and collected in albums. This particular print seems to play on ideas about female beauty, scientific curiosity, and public spectacle. Was it intended as a titillating image, or did it have a deeper, satirical message? An art historian would want to explore this through contemporary texts, printed ephemera, and other visual sources. Only then can we understand how it might have been viewed, and what social function it performed.