612 - A stained glass panel depicting the story of Job

A stained glass panel depicting the story of Job Clear, slightly bubbly glass and coloured glass, painted with brown-black pigment and silver-yellow stain; old lead cames, later wrought-iron frame. With old inventory no. 2230 lower right. Some cracks. Frame height 72.5, width 46.8 cm. Brabant, around 1530. There are not many depictions of the impoverished Job, afflicted with sores, whom his wife asks why he continues to believe in God - although this very question has never lost its relevance over the centuries. In the left background, two of his three friends stand attempting to comfort him. In the right background, his possessions are going up in flames and his livestock is being slaughtered. The subject of Job, sitting in despair on a dung heap while his wife pours water over him, was prominently depicted for the first time by Albrecht Dürer in 1505 on the exterior panel of an altarpiece (in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, since 1840). One of the earliest prints appears in the Bible of the French theologian Jean Benoît (c. 1484-1573), published in Paris from 1549 onwards - approximately 20 years after this cabinet pane was created. The painter and glass painter Jan Rombouts the Elder, born in Leuven in 1480, may possibly be considered for the execution of the Job panel. Little is known about his career. It is known that he served as dean in Leuven from 1519 until his death in 1535 and probably never left the city for any extended period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds 13 panels attributed to Jan Rombouts. Among them is The Mocking of Christ, dated 1529 (obj. no. 41.190.454), in which the face of the green-clad background figure bears a striking resemblance to that of Job. Provenance Private German collection, acquired from the Pre-Raphaelite Gallery, London, in 1979.