The picture shows the predella of the Isenheim Altarpiece.
The expressivity of its figures have made Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece one of the most famous works of early German painting. Until his death in 1524, Holbein's father worked in the same Antonite monastery that had commissioned Grünewald's altarpiece. Holbein the Younger will also have known the work in the original, as Isenheim is not far from Basel and so is easy to reach from there.
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