The Temptation of Christ Cologne, 1562 Stained glass 86 x 70 cm On loan from a private collection 20 With a demoniacal smile, the devil in human form, dressed in sumptuous garments and holding a stone in his hand, confronts Christ. After forty days of fasting in the desert, Jesus is challenged by the devil to prove his divinity (Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). But Jesus resists the devil’s demands that he turn stones into bread, throw himself unharmed from the tower, and worship Satan in order to gain dominion over the world. Instead, he pushes the devil down a slope at the top right of the image. The stained glass can be clearly attributed to the so-called Christ Window in the northern transept of Cologne Cathedral. The composition of this window, with stained glass dating from around 1525 and 1562, was not part of the cathedral’s original furnishings, but came to the cathedral in 1823 and was moved to its present location in 1870. The stained glass, which originally belonged to two different window cycles, probably came from the cloisters of the Cologne abbeys of St. Apern and St. Cecilia, which were dissolved and whose cloisters were demolished in the course of secularisation at the beginning of the 19th century. The windows are composed of different scenes from the life of Jesus. Each scene is framed by Renaissance architecture with richly decorated columns. The Temptation of Christ can be assigned to the younger cycle, dating from around 1562, and therefore probably belonged to the cloister of St. Cecilia. The dating of the cycle is based on the notation of the year 1562 on a column in the pane depicting ‘Christ Before the High Priest Annas’. There are clear similarities, particularly in the depictions of ‘Christ and the Samaritan Woman’ and ‘The Raising of Lazarus’, in the design of the framing columns, in the plate-like halos and robes, in the face of Christ and in the colour scheme. The Temptation could therefore have been placed after the Baptism of Christ. The composition of the glass painting is based on a woodcut from ‘The Little Passion’ by Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, c. 1520–1530 (London, The British Museum, inv. 1859.0709.2840). Similarities can be seen in the composition, in parts of the devil’s figure and the architecture of the tower. Also comparable is a stained-glass window depicting the Temptation dating from around 1516–1522 (London, Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. C 237-1928). This window was originally part of the glazing in the cloister of Mariawald Abbey in the Eifel. Rode 1974, 180–185, fig. 27, pl. 194–201. – Cat. Rheinische Glasmalerei 2007, vol. II, 208–210, cat. no. 104, fig. 31 (Dagmar Täube). – Scholz 2021. Carola Hagnau 92
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