This particular woodcut remained
in the subsequent editions of the Geneva Bible, seemingly never coming under iconoclastic
scrutiny for its content. The reason for this permissiveness may be found in
the intended purpose of the image. While it is technically a similitude of God,
one could make the argument that it is a visual representation of how Ezekiel
describes what he sees, rather than an attempt to capture the divine essence in
pictures. Ezekiel says that what he saw was “like the appearance of a man.” Moreover,
there are clear indicators of the image’s purpose as something other than
visual stimulation and devotion. Small letters are scattered around the image,
indicating a description key, which has usually been lost in surviving copies,
that would explain to the reader each portion of the image. Also, the artist
has gone to great lengths to capture exactly what Ezekiel describes, without
any visual embellishments, even including a personification of the North Wind
(Aquilon) blowing the vision into view. Finally, when compared to similar
images of prophetic visions that were appearing in European art, the depiction
of God here is rather banal and slight.
Nevertheless, its presence and
popularity should not be overlooked because of its poor artistic quality. In
fact, there is an argument to be made that this inferior aesthetic is
intentional. Elsewhere, I have made the argument that this image is a good
example of the kind of anti-image that other scholars, like Joseph Koerner,
have identified in Lutheran art. It is intended to halt the reader’s
imagination, providing a visual diagram more than visual stimulation. The
unusual and awkward placement of the image, between verses 4 and 5 of chapter
1, bears out this idea, that the image was intended to subvert any wild imaginings
and fix in the readers’ minds a particular presentation of the divine
revelation. (David J. Davis, From Icons to Idols: Documents on the Image
Debate in Reformation England [Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2015, 2016],
75-76)
