Epitaph for Alexius Funck (Death of the Virgin)

In the summer of 1522 the main square of Wiener Neustadt, a town south of Vienna, became a courtroom. Archduke Ferdinand, the young Habsburg ruler, had the rebellious leaders of the Austrian Estates tried there in public, and Vienna's mayor, Martin Siebenbürger, was condemned to death with five other burghers. Around the same time this panel was made for the town's cathedral, as the memorial of a former mayor of Wiener Neustadt, Alexius Funck. The Belvedere attributes it to the painter known as Master MS. Above, the apostles crowd around the Virgin's canopied bed, one of them holding a censer, while high in the gold sky a wreath of clouds frames her coronation in heaven. Below, the Funck family kneel with their coats of arms and patron saints. The panel is on show in the Palace Stables of the Lower Belvedere.