Lucas Cranach

Christ sits in the open grave and shows the stigmata of his Passion and his crucifixion. At the same time he is alive, depicted as a man who has vanquished death. The picture is labelled and dated with Cranach's signature, the winged serpent. It was the centrepiece of a winged altarpiece from the collegiate church in Halle a. d. Saale. Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg's coat of arms adorns the reverse. Following the Reformation in 1541 and his concomitant flight, the cardinal, who was known to be a patron of the selling of indulgences had to transfer church chattels from Halle to his Mainz residence in Aschaffenburg. The panel was donated to the Freiburg Minster in 1809.