Solomon adoring the idols - grisaille and silver yellow medallions, 16th c.

This small circular panel of uncoloured glass with a rich painted decoration belongs to the rare and highly sought-after corpus of ‘medallions’ or ‘cocardes’ from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, which were hugely popular throughout Europe from the 15th century onwards. Modest in size, these roundels were placed at the heart of a window or stained glass window, in religious buildings or in the sumptuous private residences of the wealthy clientele who flourished at the time. Their delicate painted decorations reflected their tastes and echoed the paintings of renowned artists circulating in the form of drawings or engravings taken up by the stained-glass makers.
The style of execution and composition of the decoration on our roundel, painted in grisaille and enhanced with rich and varied shades of silver yellow, means that it can be attributed to a glassmaker from the Netherlands, active in the 16th century. It is similar to several pieces of glass in the collections of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Bruxelles, such as The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and The Prodigal Son Dispersing His Inheritance.
Our medallion illustrates an episode from the Book of Kings in the Old Testament. It shows Solomon worshipping idols at the end of his life, when he turned away from God's commandments. He submitted to the whims of the foreign women in his harem, who each had their own god. To please them, Solomon had sanctuaries built for their idols, Murdoch and Astarte, to whom he himself made offerings. Here, one of the women points to the sculpture of an ancient divinity before which the old king kneels. In the background, the scene is repeated among the people. Our artist's composition was certainly inspired by famous engravings illustrating this episode, and probably one of the most famous, by Lucas of Leiden, executed in 1514.