Winged altarpiece, Scenes from the Life of St Margaret, carved, painted and gilded oak, North Germany (Lüneburg or Hamburg?), ca. 1520

St. Margaret and scenes from her legend. Left wing: (1) St. Margaret given to the nurse by her father Theodosius (2) St. Margaret keeping sheep (3) St. Margaret testifying before Olybrius.
Centre wing: (5) St. Margaret sentenced (6) St. Margaret led away to prison (7) St. Margaret put into prison (8) St. Margaret tempted by the devil in the form of a man (9) St. Margaret tortured with iron combs (10) St. Margaret scourged (11) St. Margaret overcoming the dragon (12) St. Margaret boiled in a vessel of pitch
Right wing: (13) an angel ministering to St. Margaret in prison (14) Olybrius and his followers on horseback (15) the executioner Malchus praying to St. Margaret (16) St. Margaret beheaded. On the back of the wings are painted the Virgin and Child and St Margaret, St. Catherine and St. Barbara

This altarpiece depicting the Life of St Margaret was made in North Germany, probably in Hamburg or Lüneburg in about 1520. It was probably made for the church of St John in Lüneburg which housed in pre-Reformation time forty altarpieces. It depicts the Life of St Margaret from Antioch, the patroness of childbirth and is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers..

5894-1859