Barbara-Altar (Schwaigern), detail 1510

This panel showing the martyrdom of Saint Barbara comes from the Barbara Altar created by Jerg Ratgeb, likely sometime in the 1510s, in Southern Germany. Ratgeb was not only an artist, but also a political figure in the German Peasants War of 1525, and he was executed as a result. In this detail we see the opulence of the clothing of Barbara's executioner, who is also her own father. This is typical of Northern Renaissance art, where the wealthy are shown to be obsessed with worldly goods. Barbara kneels, accepting her fate with grace, next to the Eucharist, showing her piety. The wider altar from which this panel comes was made for a church, but with the coming of the reformation such images were often defaced, and many were destroyed. This one survives and allows us to appreciate both Ratgeb's skill as an artist, and his participation in wider social and political movements, which scholars have been able to trace through surviving archival sources.