Lucia steekt haar ogen uit before 1652

Curator: Well, here we have Zacharias Dolendo's engraving, "Lucia steekt haar ogen uit," or "Lucia Plucks Out Her Eyes," from before 1652. The scene's intensity jumps right out, doesn't it? Editor: Indeed. It has this… baroque melodramatic flair, you know? The moment depicted, the scale, the way the figures gesture – it all feels so charged, so performative. Is it pen illustration or print, actually? Curator: It's an engraving, technically. Notice how the crisp lines lend it a kind of starkness despite the high drama. What symbols do you think stand out here? Editor: Her eyes, of course. Blinding is a recurrent motif connected with wisdom, sacrifice, the stripping away of the material to find truth. Her self-inflicted blindness protects her virtue from a tyrant, but what does that really mean? The gaze is complicated, power dynamics and how the female form and gaze have historically been controlled, y'know? The shoes carelessly discarded nearby – these imply a struggle, don’t they? Curator: Absolutely. Saint Lucia, as she’s portrayed here, chooses faith, her own virtue, over earthly vision and male desire. I find her determination almost defiant. There is also the man seemingly sneaking from behind the curtains. How might you read that? Editor: The sneaky male figure at the door could point towards deceit and powerlessness, Lucia, however, is an empowered, moral beacon. But, is that the male view of a woman's choices versus a female's actions that lead to her own choices? Curator: Dolendo perfectly encapsulates the narrative art form through the engravings, right? Editor: This work leaves you wondering. Were the extremes depicted—blindness to avoid violation—worth the moral stance? Or is this the symbolic representation of self sacrifice and moral autonomy? Curator: A provocative point. This isn't just about a story of virtue, but, perhaps, about individual autonomy against societal and male pressures. Editor: The drama and her power do endure through time, in iconography at least. Curator: True, Lucia's story, as captured by Dolendo's engraving, sparks discussions that seem relevant even today.