Starck Triptych

NUREMBERG: DÜRER AND HUMANISM

Commissioned by the Nuremberg patrician Georg Starck, this triptych was painted by an artist in the circle of Hans Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut, in whose workshop Albrecht Dürer was trained. Representing the Elevation of the Cross, an unusual subject for the time, the crowded scene is set against a continuous landscape, which shapes the procession to Golgotha. Under the bright sky, at Christ’s privileged right side, the Virgin, Veronica, and the grieving Magdalene gather. Under the dark clouds at Christ’s left are the witnesses, such as the mounted centurion who gestures to Christ and the thief with his arms tied behind his back, contemplating the rough-hewn cross on which he, too, will be hoisted.