St Maurice (interior) and St Sebastian (exterior)

Both faces of this wing show officers of the Roman army. On the gilded inner side stands St Maurice, who by legend commanded a legion raised in Egyptian Thebes and was put to death with his men in the Alps for refusing to give up their faith. From the 13th century, German-speaking artists often painted him as a Black African, and Marx Reichlich's workshop did the same here, around 1500. He wears plate armour tinted pink, a gold collar and a green turban with a curved gold ornament, and he carries a lance striped in black and gold. On the outer face, against a dark ground, is St Sebastian, whom legend makes an officer of the emperor's guard, shot with arrows for his faith. Here he is a young man of fashion, in a fur-trimmed gown with green sleeves and red hose, holding up his arrows.