The Apostles Peter, Paul, James the Less and Simon

Around 1445 to 1450, a winged altarpiece in the Salzburg region changed with the calendar. On ordinary days its wings stayed shut, and people saw only the outside. These four apostles are that outside. The Belvedere attributes the panel to the painter known as the Master of Laufen, and the other face of the same wing showed Christ carrying the cross. Later the wing was sawn through its thickness, turning one board into two pictures.

Each apostle holds his sign. Peter has his key and Paul a sword. James the Less carries a fuller's club, because tradition says he was beaten to death with one, and Simon holds a saw, from the legend that he was sawn in two. Both halves were auctioned in Berlin in 1929 and bought that year by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.