Job Reproved by His Friends - Barry, James (Irish painter, printmaker, and lithographer, 1741-1806, active in England) (The Tate Gallery, 1983)
'Beset by disasters on all sides, the long-suffering Job listens dejectedly to the reproving counsel of his friends. To the left sit Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, while behind them the young man, Elihu, who lectures Job in his turn, leans on a staff. Job's wife touches her husband's shoulder with one hand and point heavenward with the other. In his book on the sublime and beautiful, Edmund Burke used numerous examples from 'The Book of Job' to evoke the sublime, awesome dimension of God's omnipotent power, and, by dedicating his print to Burke, Barry pays homage to his friend's work as an aesthetician. This print however should be read as a political allegory. The features of Job's wife unmistakably resemble those of William Pitt the Elder. Burke should perhaps be identified with the seated, discoursing friend to Job's left, since this figure most closely resembles that of Burke as Zenocrates executed in the following year. It is also possible that Job should be identified with Burke or perhaps even Barry, who, grieving over the misfortunes created by the American Revolution, is counselled by his reproving friends not to despair. All of these readings play havoc with the biblical story, but, for Barry, in the realm of printmaking the contemporary political message takes precedence over the historical subject through which it is conveyed.' (Pressly, 76-7)
Keywords: Eliphaz (Biblical character); Bildad (Biblical character); Zophar (Biblical character); Elihu (Biblical character); Job's wife (Biblical character); Art, Irish; Etching 18th century; Aquatint 18th century; Job (Biblical figure) Art.; History in art; Politics in art; Conversation in art; Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797. Philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful.; Storms in art; Ruins in art; Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778; Allegories; 18th century