Altarpiece of the Holy Trinity

It is recorded as the work of Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece. The record gives 1520 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Recorded genres are religious art. It is recorded in the collection of National Gallery Prague and Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe 1200–1550.

The three-part altarpiece with wings painted on both sides was part of the Schäffner collection. It was purchased for the National Gallery in Prague, Collection of Old Art from J. Kretschmer in Prague in 1937. The relatively small size of the stand suggests that it was originally meant for the side altar of a church or else for a private domestic chapel. The altarpiece is composed of a central panel measuring 128.5 x 76 cm and two hinged wings 39 cm wide. The Throne of Grace (in Latin ‘Thronus gratiae’, in German ‘Gnadenstuhl’, in French ‘Trône de grâce’) depicted on the central panel is an iconographical type used c. 1120 in the Cambrai Missal. It is accompanied by images of the Virgin Mary in a Wheat-ear Dress (in German: "Maria im Ährenkleid") and St Barbara. In the bottom left-hand corner there kneels a donor portrait, greatly reduced in size compared with the sacred figures, of an unknown layman adoring the Holy Trinity with clasped hands. The enthroned God the Father with a Papal tiara on his head shows the faithful his crucified son, thus inviting them to personally contemplate on God's mercy that, for the salvation of humanity, sacrificed Jesus Christ. The faithful are meant to participate in, or at least better comprehend, the grief of the Father at the loss of his only Son who was sacrificed for our redemption. The tortured body of Christ - the Man of Sorrows is the ‘vir dolorum’ of Isaiah’s prophecy about the suffering servant. The dove above the head of God the Father symbolises the Holy Spirit. The altarpiece is a unique arrangement of symbols. On the right wing there is the Madonna in the Wheat-ear Dress, her hands clasped in prayer, in a dress decorated with ears of wheat and in a gilt-hemmed bodice that has, here, replaced the usual collar with sunrays. Along with images of the Madonna as a servant in the temple, this Marian motif is typical of the early 15th century. The theological reference to the portrayal of the Virgin Mary appears in the Song of Solomon 7;2: ‘Your belly is a heap of wheat encircledwith lilies’. Here, the Virgin Mary is identified with the earth bearing its fruits even without being sown; she is seen as an unploughed field that, even so, brings forth ears of wheat because it is the field of God. The ears of wheat themselves symbolise the body of Christ (the living Eucharist), the Bread of Angels and the wisdom of God. The motif of the sunray collar also has its symbolic origin in the Song of Solomon (6:10):‘You are as majestic as the morning sky — glorious as the moon — blinding as the sun!’. In European culture, the characteristically waving hair symbolises virginity, though also obedience and devotion to the Grace of God that created the Son of God. On the left wing there is St Barbara in period clothes carrying a chalice and host. St Barbara, a virgin and martyr and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, was popular in the Middle Ages as the Patron of Good Death to whom people turned in difficult moments such as during plague epidemics. It is said of St Barbara that, out of reverence towards the Holy Trinity, she had a third window created in the building where she was imprisoned. On the rear of the hinged panels there are the Bohemian patron saints – on the left is St Wenceslaus in a ducal hat, with a banner bearing the St Wenceslaus eagle and in period Renaissance armour and a white tunic. On the left there is King Sigismund of Burgundy with his attributes – a royal crown, orb and sceptre. The remains of both saints are placed in St Vitus Cathedral and were already the object of worship under the reign of Charles IV. Vladislaus II Jagiellon consciously followed on in the older tradition dating from the era of the Luxembourg dynasty, having the same patron saints painted on his Křivoklát Castle Altarpiece.

Altarpiece of the Holy Trinity is recorded from 1520.