Wolfgang von Regensburg

The Wolfgang von Regensburg by the Meister des Wimpfener Quirinusaltars, painted around 1490 and now in the Museum of the Diocese of Rottenburg, depicts Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg, the tenth-century Bishop of Regensburg who was canonized in 1052 and whose cult was particularly strong in Bavaria and the German-speaking south. Wolfgang was among the most important regional saints of southern Germany, associated with miraculous healing and with the legendary founding of the monastery of Mondsee, and his image appeared frequently in altarpiece programs commissioned for churches in his region of influence. The anonymous master, working within the Swabian painting tradition, produced this panel as part of the same altarpiece program that included his Sebastian, Nicholas, and companion works now in the Rottenburg diocesan collection. The panel is a representative example of provincial German devotional altarpiece painting of the late fifteenth century.

Wolfgang is presented in bishop's vestments with his identifying attributes — typically the axe and the model of a church — in the formal, frontal devotional panel format characteristic of saint paintings in altarpiece programs. The Swabian workshop style renders the bishop with precise linear clarity and a warm, limited palette suited to the devotional context.