Paumgartner altarpiece

The Paumgartner Altar is a designed as a triptych altarpiece by Albrecht Dürer. The resulting after 1503 painting is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich ( Inv. nos. 706, 701, 702).

Formation and motif

Albrecht Dürer the picture after 1503 painted for the Nuremberg family Paumgartner. She is represented as founding figures on the left and right bottom of the middle panel. On the central panel of a typical depiction of the birth of Christ can be seen. On the left wing is the St. George, depicted a portrait of Stephan Paumgartner with a dragon. On the right is the St. Eustace, a portrait of Paumgartner brother, Luke. On the outer sides of the wings an Annunciation scene is shown with only the Madonna is present. The monogram of Dürer is located on the support beams of the roof.

The altar was sold about 1614 to Elector Maximilian of Bavaria to Munich. Since he did not meet the then aesthetic sensibilities, the altar was fashioned. On the central panel of the founding family were painted over. The wings were pieced, so increased. The Knights were given helmets and horses. Furthermore, the wing received a landscape in the background in order to obtain a continuous horizon line on the altar. Beginning of the last century, these changes have been reversed.

On 21 April 1988, Hans -Joachim Bohlmann doused the Paumgartner Altar, the Lamentation of Christ Albrecht Glimm and Mater Dolarosa with sulfuric acid, which ate its way up into the wood, so that the images were destroyed to 70%. The Paumgartner Altar of the 40 million U.S. $ was worth at the time, thus lost about 30 % of its value. After 21 years of restoration it was issued in 2010.