Kreuzigungsaltar, Mitteltafel: Christus am Kreuz

Material / Technology / Carrier

Tannenholz (Abies alba)

Dimensions of the object

179,2 x 116,3 cm

Displayed

AP OG Saal II

Department

Altdeutsche Malerei

Genre

Malerei

Inventory number

5329

Acquisition

1808/09 durch Ankauf aus dem Kollegium St. Salvator in Augsburg erworben

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München

Citation

Hans Burgkmair d. Ä., Kreuzigungsaltar, Mitteltafel: Christus am Kreuz, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/rqxNJbKxvW (Last updated on 21.11.2023)

Extending across the central panel and the two side panels (see inv. no. 5330, 531) is a vast landscape and a sky that, according to the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 27:45), is being plunged into darkness at this very moment. At the feet of Christ, whose cross dominates the central panel, we see Mary Magdalene mourning, flanked by Mary and John. Below the cross on the right—which is turned away from Christ as a sign of the convict’s obduracy—stands St Martha, while positioned below the left-hand cross is her brother, St Lazarus. Following the written tradition of late-medieval Passion narratives, the demon squatting on Christ’s cross is trying to spot a blemish on Christ’s soul. The retable was most probably commissioned by Georg Peutinger (d. 1515) for the St Salvator’s chapel in the cemetery of St Stephan in Augsburg, which had been completed around 1517.