Beeld van een vrouw met reptielen in het Huis ter Meer te Maarssen c. 1903

This photograph captures a sculpture of a woman with reptiles in the Huis ter Meer in Maarssen, created by an anonymous artist. Images of women intertwined with snakes often evoke narratives of seduction, danger, and power, echoing the complex relationship between femininity and nature. What does it mean to depict a woman with reptiles in a domestic space? The photograph itself, a tool of documentation, freezes the sculpture in time, inviting us to consider its original social context and the cultural meanings it may have carried. Was she a symbol of protection, a warning, or perhaps an exotic object of fascination for the inhabitants of the house? Consider the gaze of the woman. How might her posture and expression challenge or subvert the traditional representations of women? What might her relationship with the reptiles symbolize about the societal constraints placed upon women and their connection to the wild and untamed? The emotional resonance of this image resides in its ambiguity, prompting us to question the narratives we inherit and the stories we choose to tell.