MASTER of the Burg Weiler Altarpiece
(active c. 1470 in Swabia)

The Burg Weiler Altarpiece (exterior)

c. 1470
Oil and gold on fir panel, 174 x 66 cm (each wing)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The picture shows the Burg Weiler Altarpiece in closed state. The triptych was commissioned for the small chapel, adjacent to the castle of Burg Weiler, one of the seats of the Freiherren von und zu Weiler.

On the exterior of the left wing are depicted three martyrs of the Theban Legion, naked but for breechcloth and impaled upon a thorn bush. On the exterior of the right wing St Theodulus is seen holding in his right hand a model of the chapel of St Maurice, which housed the relics of the Theban martyrs. On both wings, the figures are placed in shallow landscapes with lush grassy and flower-strewn foregrounds and middle grounds of rocky outcroppings, all against unarticulated blue backgrounds elaborated with crossed foliate branches.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.