The Znojmo Altarpiece

In December 1437 Emperor Sigismund died in Znojmo, a town in southern Moravia less than 100 kilometres north of Vienna, and his son-in-law Albert, the Habsburg duke of Austria, succeeded him as king. A few years later, around 1440 to 1445, a workshop from the Vienna area made this altarpiece for the Wenceslas Chapel beside Znojmo's church of Saint Nicholas. The Belvedere lists it under the workshop of the Master of the Friedrich Altarpiece, an anonymous painter. Every scene inside is carved in painted limewood. In the centre the two thieves hang tied to their crosses beside Christ, above a crowd of horsemen, soldiers and mourners. On the left wing Christ and the thieves are led out through a city gate, their crosses carried behind them. On the right, his body is lowered from the cross above an open tomb.