Altarpiece of St Catherine's Church, Zwickau [right fixed wing]

The right fixed wing of the Zwickau St Catherine's Church Altarpiece (1518) is one of the non-moveable wings that flanked the opening panels of the altarpiece — a permanent element of the iconographic program regardless of whether the altarpiece was open or closed. Its survival in the church for which Cranach made it gives it exceptional historical significance: the Zwickau altarpiece components that remain in the Katharinenkirche are among the most complete surviving examples of a Cranach altarpiece in its original ecclesiastical setting. The iconographic program of the full altarpiece — left wing, right fixed wing, left wing, upper panel, and predella — created a comprehensive devotional environment in the church that worshippers experienced as an integrated whole. Cranach's ability to design such programs, coordinating multiple panels into a coherent theological statement, demonstrates the organizational sophistication that sustained his workshop's capacity for major altarpiece commissions alongside the smaller devotional panels and portraits that formed the bulk of his production.

Fixed outer wings often employed a more austere visual register than the inner painted wings, sometimes rendered in grisaille to simulate stone or metal sculpture. The painting strategy for the Zwickau fixed wings — whether grisaille or full colour — is determined by the surviving physical evidence at the Katharinenkirche.