Holy Trinity (Mercy Seat)

The whole panel, frame included, is barely 25 centimetres tall. Painted around 1420 to 1430, probably in Vienna or Wiener Neustadt, it was made to be looked at from very close. God the Father, grey-bearded, holds his dead Son against his chest. Christ still wears the crown of thorns, and the wounds show in his hand and side. Angels in red, blue and green crowd around them, some with hands raised or joined in prayer. The dove of the Holy Spirit is small enough to miss. In German this version of the Trinity is called the Not Gottes, the distress of God, because the Father holds the body of his Son himself. Such images were meant as aids to prayer on Christ's suffering. The frame is the original one, and fine cracks run across it and across the gold ground alike.