Solomon Worshipping Idols - Grisaille And Yellow Silver Medallion, Netherlands, 16th Century

This small circular panel of colorless glass decorated with a rich painted decoration, belongs to the rare and coveted corpus of "medallions" or "cockades" from the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, which enjoyed immense success throughout Europe from the 15th century. Of modest size, these roundels were placed at the heart of a window or a stained glass window, within religious buildings or the opulent private residences of a wealthy clientele that flourished at the time. Their delicate painted decorations respond to their taste and echo paintings by famous painters circulating in the form of drawings or engravings taken up by master glassmakers. The style of execution and the composition of the decoration of our roundel painted in grisaille and enhanced with silver yellow in rich and varied shades, allow us to attribute it to a glassmaker from the Netherlands, active in the 16th century. In this respect, it can be compared to several glasses kept in the collections of the Brussels Museum of Art and History, such as the one of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist or the Prodigal Son squandering his inheritance. Our medallion illustrates an episode from the Book of Kings in the Old Testament. It shows Solomon worshiping idols at the end of his life, when he turned away from God's commandments. He thus submitted to the whims of the foreign women in his harem, each of whom had a God. To please them, Solomon had sanctuaries built for their idols, Murdoch and Astarte, to whom he himself made offerings. Here, one of these women points to the sculpture of an ancient divinity before which the old king kneels. In the background, the scene is repeated among the population. Our artist was certainly inspired for his composition by famous engravings illustrating this episode and probably by one of the most famous, that of Lucas de Leyde, executed in 1514.