Symbolic representations of human vices are depicted in four horizontal bands. The vices take a female form and are mounted on a variety of beasts. At the top is Pride who rides a magnificent horse and charges towards the jaws of hell. Hell is a fabulous beast, a blue reptilian head with a maw lined with teeth, exuding orange-colored flames. On the next level, Luxuria, sexual depravity, rides a goat, a traditional symbol of lust. She is dressed in blue but is bare breasted and holds a parrot in her outstretched left hand. She turns to look behind her to see Gluttony riding a pig. Gluttony is dressed in yellow and holds out a platter of food. The two vices bear similarities as both corrupt natural desires, which, used with moderation, are essential to life. Food and sexual activity ensure the continuation of the individual and of the species. Below, Sloth rides on a donkey. Clothed in a light blue dress she wears a white ruff at her neck and holds a yellow banner resting on her shoulder. She is upright and her pose is placid compared to those of her sisters. Envy is more active; wearing a deep blue robe she holds a writhing snake and rides a bear. Below, Greed appears on a tortoise. She wears a blue tight-fitting garment over chest and upper hips and holds a purse in her left hand. To her right, Wrath sits on a great bear, who turns his head and shows his teeth. She is armed with a sword and shield. The panel links vices of similar types, lust and gluttony are motivated by pleasure sought by the flesh; sloth and envy link inactivity to a concomitant desired for the goods that others have earned; and avarice is associated with wrath, suggesting that the desire to hoard for the self is supported by aggression to defend such uncharitable actions. At the bottom of the panel a horizontal inscription flanks a coat of arms in the center. An inscription panel at the bottom is divided by a coat of arms in the center.

Both vitreous and enamel paint are extremely well adhered. Overall, a slight corrosion speckles the glass. Several cracks repaired by mending leads appear in the lower right level; the vertical triangular segment in the inscription is a replacement. A shatter break in the figure of Sloth is stabilized by a lead plug.

Niklaus Mani was bailiff of the infirmary of Wimmis in the Canton of Bern and married to Barbara Ueltschi. In a small round welcome panel of Niklaus Mani and his wife dated 1654 (VMR_898), he is named “Landseckelmeister” (treasurer).

The tradition of seven categories of sins dates back to Early Christian times and the writing of the Desert Fathers. By the Middle Ages, it was widespread, and formied the basis of major works of literature. Purgatorio, the second book of Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, written in the early fourteenth century, is structured around the seven deadly sins. At the lowest level are the most serious sins, wrath, envy, and finally, pride since they are of the human intellect, the “lighter” sins, starting with lust, gluttony, greed, and sloth are those of the body, a condition shared with animals. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400 sets the sins into the long exposition on confession in the second part of the Parson’s Tale. Pride, the root of all sins, is followed by Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust (Parson’s Tale, Chapter 23: Of the roote of thise sevene sinnes thanne is Pryde, the general rote of alle harmes; for of this rote springen certein braunches, as Ire, Envye, Accidie or Slewthe, Avarice or Coveitise (to commune understondinge), Glotonye, and Lecherye). Hieronymus Bosch painted a Table of the Seven Deadly Sins, 1502–1510 (Museo de Prado) where he identified the sins with a specific human activity. Little hierarchy appears, however.

In the Renaissance, print cycles of the Virtues and Vices achieved widespread dissemination. One of the most influential artists was Heinrich Aldegrever who produced a series on the seven deadly sins in 1552 (New Hollstein, 1998, Aldegrever, p. 130). The Vices are mounted on symbolic animals: Pride on a horse, Gluttony on a boar, Avarice on a she-wolf, Sloth on a donkey, Wrath on a bear, Envy on a porcupine, and Lust on a camel. In the Baltimore panel, Pride [Hoffart], Gluttony [frass], Sloth [Ful und Träg], and Anger [Zorn] ride the same beasts. Lust [Unküsch] rides a goat, a frequent association for sexual depravity, Avarice [Gӱtz] rides a kind of reptile, and Envy [Nӱd] sits on what appears to be a bear. Envy is certainly correctly labeled, as she holds a snake, long associated with envy, as depicted in a print by Jacques Callot, ca. 1620 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 57.650.390(6)). The Baltimore panel repeats the theological position that Pride is the source of all sins, for it places the self as higher than God. Pride mounted on a horse is one of the oldest images of the sin, represented on medieval church portals as a man falling off his horse, for example Notre Dame of Paris (1210–1220; Sauerländer, 1972, p. 456, pl. 51). The mouth of hell as a monster with great jaws is also of great antiquity, as shown in a well-known Anglo-Saxon image of the Harrowing of Hell of the second or third quarter of the eleventh century (British Library Cotton Ms Tiberius C VI).

Cited in
Hayward, J., Kummer-Rothenhäusler, S. and Raguin,V. (1987) p. 68.
Hayward, J., Kummer-Rothenhäusler, S. and Raguin,V. (1989) p. 311.