Martyrium der Heiligen Ursula und der 11.000 Jungfrauen

The Meister des Rottweiler Hochaltars's Martyrium der Heiligen Ursula und der 11.000 Jungfrauen (Martyrdom of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins), painted around 1440 and now in the Collection Hirscher, depicts the legendary mass martyrdom of the British princess Ursula and her eleven thousand companions by the Huns at Cologne — one of the most spectacular and gruesome hagiographic narratives of the medieval tradition. The Ursula legend, though historically implausible, was elaborated and visualized in memorable cycles by Memling in Bruges and Carpaccio in Venice, and was treated throughout German painting as well.

Tempera on panel. The martyrdom scene fills the panel with multiple simultaneous episodes from the massacre — Ursula being shot with arrows, her companions being put to the sword, the ships on the Rhine where part of the narrative unfolds.