Job ontvangt geschenken 1563

Philips Galle made this print, *Job ontvangt geschenken*, sometime before his death in 1612. We can see that it visualizes a passage from the Book of Job. But how does it shape our understanding of that story? Galle was a leading printmaker in Antwerp, in the Spanish Netherlands, and his workshop produced images for a wide international market. This print translates a well-known biblical story into a visual language that would have resonated with viewers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Look at the figures offering gifts. They're not just generic biblical characters; they're rendered with details of dress and physiognomy that would have signaled specific social types to Galle's contemporaries. To truly understand this image, we need to delve into the visual culture of the period. We need to look at how similar stories were depicted, how social hierarchies were represented, and how the institutions of art – like printmaking workshops – shaped the production and dissemination of images.