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École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

“They have no wit or judgment,” complains Isaiah 44. But is the prophet referring to idols or to the people who formed them? In the elaborate black-and-white drawing above, 17th-century Dutch painter Jakob Jordaens seems to illustrate both possible meanings. Titled Isaiah’s Satire on the Sculpting of Idols, the drawing depicts worshipers praising the statues that are being produced in a sculptor’s workshop. At the bottom of the drawing, Jordaens has indicated that it illustrates Isaiah 44:15–17: “[The craftsman] takes some [wood] to warm himself, And he builds a fire and bakes bread. He also makes a god of it and worships it…He prays to it and cries, ‘Save me, for you are my god!’”