The important painting in the former chapel of Negova Castle, which is regrettably badly preserved or damaged in parts, reveals the considered iconographical concept which represents the Protestant mentality of the client. Considering its stylistic and iconographic features, it is possible todate it to the final decade of the 16th century, when according to archival sources the owner of the castle (between 1589 until 1598) was Anna Trautmansdorf, who was married to Wolf Stubenberg. In the 16th century the Stubenberg family was considered to be one of the most important aristocratic Protestant families in Styria. The whole iconographical concept of the painting follows the principles of the "Law and Grace", one of the rare explicity Protestant iconographic themes, which had with help of graphics, especially in some of Luther's bibles, spread quickly round Central Europe in the last twenty years of 16th century, when Lucas Cranach senior created the first two paintings with this title. It is a simple antithetical depiction of the basic chapters of the Old (Period of Law) and New Testament (Period of Grace). The elementary Reformation message about forgiveness and redemption only through faith is underlined by selected images from the New and Old Testaments. That the painting in the chapel of Negova Castle undoubtedly arose from Lutheran religious conviction is testified by another painting - on the arch of the valut aperture where there is an illustration of the heraldic sign, the Luther rose or seal.
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