The panel shows Christ on the cross in front of a mountainous landscape with a castle. Mary Magdalene kneels behind the cross holding the shaft, while Mary and St. John stand either side with their hands folded in prayer. In the lower section there is a family of 14 donors
The panel shows Christ on the cross in front of a mountainous landscape with a castle. Mary Magdalene kneels behind the cross holding the shaft, while Mary and St. John stand either side with their hands folded in prayer. In the lower section there is a family of 14 donors and various coats of arms.
The donor figures and coats of arms suggest that this panel was created as an epitaph for the Saxon councillor Sigismund von Maltitz († 1520). At the lower centre the Maltitz family coat of arms (with a shield divided seven times by black and silver; on the helmet: six black rooster feathers, a fluttering red flag and black and silver covers) is prominently displayed and the coat of arms of the von Schönberg family (with a gold shield shows a lion divided by red and green; on the helmet the torso of a red lion and red and gold covers) is included on the far right. This is a reference to Sigismund's wife Clara von Schönberg. At the time of his father's death in 1520, his son Johann was already Bishop of Meissen and is therefore depicted on the epitaph to the left of his father in bishop's vestments and with the bishop's coat of arms.
[cda 2023]
