Wings from the Altarpiece for the West Chancel of Naumburg Cathedral [right wing]: The Apostel James the Elder and St Mary Magdalene with Bishop Johannes III. von Schönberg (1492-1517) as Donor [interior]

The central panel and the predella are missing from the altarpiece. Nor is it certain whether the wing panels were reduced in height a fact, which seem to be suggested by the remains of an ornamental arch above St Barbara. The panels and the now missing parts of the altarpiece were evidently dismantled by order of the first protestant bishop of Naumburg, Nikolaus von Amsorf (1542-1546) in the year 1544. The two panel were relocated to the east chancel and preserved only because of the portraits.

The chronicler Johann Zader, to whom in the 17th century the price of the altarpiece was still known (one panel cost more than 500 Gilders), just mentions portrait panels without naming the artist. He records the location in the west chancel (old chancel).

There can be no doubt that the altarpiece was commissioned within the context of a memorial for Bishop Johannes III. von Schönberg by his successor Philipp von Wittelsbach on the 25th of September 1518 (transcription of the document in Liber flavus, fol. 50, Domstiftsarchiv, Naumburg). The sepulchral monument for Bishop Johannes was evidently installed in the centre of the transpect in the west chancel. Only the damaged remnants of the bronze inscription mounted on a pillar in the nave survived the fire of 1532. Within the context of a newly commissioned altarpiece single existing elements may have been amalgamated. At least the depiction of the saints on the two wing panels suggests a correlation with the altarpiece of St Mary Magdalene (documented since 1287) and the Altarpiece of St Philip and James, Catharine and Barbara commissioned by the Dean Henning Grope about 1410.

The accounts of the Fabrica reveal that in the year 1518 painting was carried out in the east and west Chancel, in connection with this the donor figures in the west chancel were ‚renovated‘ (the preview was on the 29th of June 1518). Consequentially it may be assumed that Bishop Johannes II. von Schönberg had already begun installing his own sepulcral monument and that only the completion of works was left to his successor Philipp von Wittelsbach. However the inclusion of the portrait on the wing panel is subordinate to the death of the Bishop. Cranach’s name has to date only been found mentioned once: in the week of the 27th of March 1519 the Domstift’s delivery boy was paid for conveying a message on horseback to Master Lucas in Wittenberg regarding the panel in the west chancel of the cathedral.

There is no lack of entries pertaining to expenses incurred for transportation and scaffolding, even iron, pins and a lock are mentioned in association with the altarpiece. The destruction of the fire in 1532 does not seem to have affected the altarpiece, therefore it may be assumed that it was the main altarpiece in the chancel. If this is the case then the lost central component would most certainly have contained a depiction of the Mother of God – the patron of the west chancel.

As central component for the altarpiece the large carved figure of the Virgin [Kunde 2006, No. I.19] would proffer itself if records didn’t suggest its isolated position above the rood screen, far away from the assembly on the altar of the sanctuary. Like many of Cranach’s altarpieces the difference between the inner and outer sides of the wings is striking. The freestanding figures on the exterior of the wing panels with clearly represented attributes - sword and chalice - against a dark background alternate with the broad indistinct groups represented on the interior against a gold background. The stationary figures are as it were dismissed by the crowded interior.

[Schade, Kunde 2006, 135, 136, 137]