Einer nackten Frau wird in einem Tempel mit einem Messer der Körper geöffnet 

Leonaert Bramer made this ink and wash drawing, “A naked woman is opened in the body with a knife in a temple”, sometime in the 17th century. It's a scene of ritual sacrifice, tinged with the exoticism that infused the European imagination at the time. Look at the setting: a classical temple, but the ceremony is strange and violent. What power dynamics are at play here? Is this a commentary on religious authority? The Dutch Republic, Bramer’s home, was forging its identity in a crucible of religious and political upheaval. The visual codes of the drawing are clearly rooted in classical and Christian imagery, but they are being used to create a sense of the uncanny. To fully understand this work, we have to consider the social conditions that shaped Bramer's vision, the institutional forces that influenced his artistic production, and the cultural milieu in which it was received. Art history can help us find those sources to reflect on the meaning of art as something deeply embedded in social and institutional contexts.