Job Conversing with His Friends 1547

Sebald Beham created this engraving of Job Conversing with His Friends sometime in the 1540s. Here, a biblical story is rendered with all the visual codes of the German Renaissance. Beham was a "Little Master," one of a group of German printmakers who made small-scale engravings for a humanist audience. The "Little Masters" often turned to the Bible for stories that could serve as moral allegories. This engraving refers to the Book of Job, in which God inflicts suffering on a righteous man to test his faith. Here, Job is visited by his family and friends; God appears in the upper corner, suggesting that it is he who ultimately controls earthly events. Prints like this were widely circulated, allowing artists to explore social and religious issues. Beham was exiled from Nuremberg for his radical views, but in prints like this, we can see him wrestling with questions of faith, justice, and the individual's place in the world. By studying prints like this, we can better understand the complex social and religious landscape of 16th-century Europe.