The subject of Ezekiel and the dry bones from the Book of Ezekiel is very rare in Christian art. Ezekiel was carried by the hand of the Lord to the valley of the dry bones. When the Lord asked him ‘can these bones live?’, Ezekiel replied ‘O Lord God thou knowest’. The Lord then prophesied that the dry bones would live and would be clothed in flesh. This was symbolic of the special place of Israel and was later interpreted as looking forward to the New Testament with the concept of the Resurrection of the body and the Last Judgement.  As is so often the case with Van den Broeck, the poses of the figures are strongly Italianate, but are probably derived through the influence of Frans Floris (q.v.) rather than by direct contact with Italian models.

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