The Bernau Altarpiece [left side wing]: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda)

left side wing: The Evangelist Luke painting the Virgin; The Stigmata of St Francis; The Martyrdom of St Erasmus; Bernhard of Clairvaux; The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand; St Martin and the Beggar; The Annunciation to Joachim; Cosmas and Damien.

First legend: The legend that the evangelist Luke was a painter first evolved in the 14th century and was assimilated into the story of his life. As only Luke's Gospel contains the Annunciation to the Virgin he was attributed with having a particularly deep relationship with the Mother of God. He apparently portrayed her when she appeared in the heavens encircled by clouds. This panel shows him seated at an easel that is reproduced with great attention to detail. The bare room is only lit by a single arched window. His symbol - the bull - lies next to him like a faithful pet.

Second legend: It is recounted in the Life of St Francis that he received a vision that left him with the stigmata of Christ. On the panel in Bernau he has raised his hands to display the stigmata visible on his hands and chest. The monks around him have fallen on their knees in reverential awe. They all wear a simple habit gathered at the waist with a white cord. There is a series of knots at the end of the cord representing three of the Franciscan virtues: poverty, obedience and abstinence. Here the artist was not familiar with the order's habit as he has painted more than the prescribed three knots.

Third legend: The panel depicts a terrible ordeal. A naked man lies bound on the ground his stomach has been slit open and his intestines wound around a windlass. It is the bishop of Antioch. His miter and habit lie beside him. He suffered his martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution of the Christians in the Lebanon. An old bearded man wearing a high turban gives orders from a window and these are executed with detachment by the three henchmen. The middle one holds the knife with which he slit open the body between his teeth. This dramatic motif was evidently borrowed from a woodcut by Cranach of the same subject. The two men on the windlass correspond to representations common in the woodcut illustrations of 15th century books of legends. As one of the fourteen Holy Helpers the saint who died in 303 enjoyed much popularity. He was also the patron saint of the Hohenzollern House and as such also the chapel in the former Berlin castle.

Fourth legend: Bernhard is shown here as a youthful monk in a white habit, holding the abbot's staff and kneeling in prayer before a vision of the Virgin and Child. The Virgin's robe is shown open as a reference to the miracle. According to the legend the saint asked the Virgin: 'Prove to me that you are the Mother of God.' She then gave him a few drops of milk from her breast, bestowing him with the trait of 'honeyed eloquence'. The eminent medieval Doctor of the Church, Bernhard of Clairvaux is the founder of the Cistercian order, whose habit he wears in the painting.

Fifth legend: The legend reports on the ten thousand Roman soldiers who during the reign of Emperor Hadrian and Antonius converted to Christianity when their commander was promised victory by an angel if he prayed to Christ. After their victorious battle in the Euphrates they were pierced with thorns and killed on Mount Ararat because of their belief. Here the dramatic act is shown where at the command of an old bearded man an armed warrior drives the unclothed soldiers into a valley where they are pierced by thorns. Three contorted and impaled corpses create the horrific and grotesque motif of the foreground.

Sixth legend: An elegant youth on horseback divides his coat with his sword to cover the scantly clothed beggar lying on the ground. According to the legend Christ disguised himself as a beggar and appeared in winter before the young Roman soldier at the city gates of Amiens. After this encounter Martin was baptized. He spent many years as a hermit in Italy before returning to France where he was elected bishop of Tours in 371.

Seventh legend: According to the legend Joachim, a wealthy owner of a herd from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, married Anna from Bethlehem. For twenty years they lived in a pious, but childless marriage. The childless state implied that God's blessing did not rest on them and was the reason why the High Priest refused to let him leave an offering at the festival of the consecration of the temple in Jerusalem. In sorrow Joachim retreated to the mountains to the shepherds and his flock. There an angel appeared to him and announced that 'His wife Anna would give birth to a daughter, she should be called Mary.' The artist [...] depicts a pastoral idyll showing the elegantly dressed old man surrounded by his flock under a tree and a childlike angel announcing the joyful message, which can be read on the banner.

Eighth legend: The two doctors are shown as scholars in gowns with cloaks and berets. One of them holds an ointment jar in his hands and the other a urinary glass. These were common attributes for doctors in the Middle Ages. The brothers (twins) lived in Asia Minor and by treating many pagans for free they were able to convert them to Christianity. After numerous martyrdoms they were finally beheaded about 289 during the persecution of the Christians under Diocletian. As the patron saints of doctors and chemists they were very popular in the Middle Ages.

[Sachs 1989, 81- 99]