The panel is divided into three rows each containing three compartments. The upper and lower levels display coats of arms at the four corners. In the center is an image of government represented by two crowned, seated women in a landscape who lift up an image of a city. Behind them is an unidentified Swiss city on a lake. Two virtues flank them. To the right, Prudence holds a serpent and looks into a mirror. On the left, Justice holds the traditional attributes of a sword and scales. In both panels a putto leaning on a skull appears at the virtue’s feet. Below the central image is a coat of arms and above, a scene of St. Jerome. St. Jerome is shown with a skeleton, a reference to the period of his life spent as a hermit. He was frequently depicted as meditating with a skull, to emphasize the concept memento mori (think on death). Here he is seen in cardinal’s attire, holding his translation of the Vulgate and in conversation with a youth. His attribute of a lion is behind the legs of the young man approaching him. A vine ripe with hanging grapes is behind the youth.

In the central horizontal bar, the narrative appears to praise the virtue of good government as represented by Swiss cities. Justice is in the place of honor, on the left (heraldic dexter), and Prudence holds a serpent and looks into a mirror, the attribute she holds in the funerary monument of Louis XII dated 1514 in the church of Saint-Denis, Paris. These are principles for keeping the peace. In the center, we find a typical depiction of a Swiss city on a lake. In the upper register, in the stopgap segment, St. Jerome is honored as the Latin translator of the core Christian text, the Old and New Testaments. He is also shown as an exemplum of the penitent Christian, focused on the knowledge that his sins have caused the suffering of Christ. The image of the young man adjacent to the fruitful grape vine must refer to the value of an upright education for the youth. Thus, the theme is consonant with the message of civic virtue contained in the original glass.

Regula Grebel, Judith Peyer, Dorothea Meyer von Knonau, and Cleophea Röist (only the armories are preserved) were the wives of Leonhard Holzhalb (1553–1617). The original donation was certainly made by this mayor of Zurich.
The inscriptions “Herr von Stetten” and “Isac von Rosenek” are later additions. The von Stetten family were a German noble family from Franconia. In the middle of the 17th century, after this panel was made, all family estates were united under Wolfgang Eberhard von Stetten, who died in 1644.

Cited in:
Record of the Art Museum, 1963, p. 19.
Raguin, and Morgan, 1987, p. 84.