Dinah Between Rape and Seduction: Maarten van Heemskerck and Renaissance Attitudes Towards Gender and Conflict

Marteen van Heemskerck’s Old Testament print series about Dinah, daughter of Jacob, was engraved by Herman Jansz. Muller and published by Gerard de Jode in Antwerp in 1569. In these images Heemskerck reinterprets the Old Testament narrative from a highly misogynistic standpoint, disputing the biblical claim that Shechem raped Dinah. The paper traces the sporadic representations of the episode in print and painting and examines visual strategies that emphasize male vulnerability over the suffering the female victim. Heemskerck’s artistic choices are evaluated in the context of exegetical differences between Martin Luther and John Calvin.