Master of the Sterzingen Altar Panels, (active between 1427 and 1467)
»The Entombment of Christ«

c. 1450/1455, Tempera and oil on spruce

Like that of the »Magi with Retinue«, this painting was originally part of the altarpiece of the former Cistercian monastery of Heiligkreuztal near Riedlingen, which has survived only in fragmentary form.

The companion pieces shown in Stuttgart form the front and back of one panel. The scenes relating to the Virgin appear on what was the inside face, while the Passion scenes adorn the outer side. Avoiding diagonals, the artist arranged parallel pictorial levels in appyling a principle of composition modeled upon the early work of the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. He also adopted van der Weyden’s minutely realistic approach to detail, which nevertheless remained subordinate to the balanced composition as a whole. [ EW ]