Christus nimmt Abschied von seiner Mutter

Christ Taking Leave of His Mother was among the most emotionally demanding subjects in Northern Renaissance devotional painting, requiring the artist to depict the moment before the Passion when Christ bids farewell to the Virgin. Schäufelein's treatment of this scene places him in the tradition established by Dürer and modified by Lucas Cranach: the scene is rendered as a private grief rather than a public event, emphasizing Mary's sorrow and Christ's composed acceptance. Schäufelein painted this type of devotional image for private patrons in the Swabian and Franconian regions where he worked, audiences accustomed to Andachtsbilder — images designed to provoke personal meditative response rather than narrative instruction.

The composition organizes grief through gesture: Christ's hand raised in blessing, Mary's hands clasped or raised in sorrow. Schäufelein uses a warm, restricted palette of reds and blues for the principal figures against a landscape background, and his brushwork in the drapery retains the linear precision of his print training.