Crucifixion Altarpiece, Left Wing, Outer Face: St Sigismund

Sigismund ruled the Burgundians in the early 6th century, and his story is not a gentle one. On the word of his second wife he had his own son killed, then withdrew in remorse to the abbey he had founded at Agaune, in what is now Switzerland. In 524, after a defeat by the Franks, he was captured and put to death. The Church honoured him as a martyr king, and in 1366 Emperor Charles IV had his relics brought to Prague Cathedral. Burgkmair painted him in 1519 on the outer face of the left shutter, the side that showed when the altarpiece was closed. The museum draws attention to the domed pavilion around him. Its architecture mixes motifs from Lombardy with ideas from Venetian painting, which Burgkmair may have seen on a journey to Italy that historians believe he made in 1507.