Saints Mark, Barbara and Luke

Saints Mark, Barbara and Luke, also at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, groups an evangelist, a virgin martyr, and another evangelist—a theologically balanced trio that suggests deliberate planning in the altarpiece program of which this panel formed part. Saint Barbara, whose tower with three windows appears beside her, was among the most popular saints of late medieval Germany, invoked against sudden death and therefore particularly reassuring in a period of recurring plague. Lochner's ability to make well-known saints fresh through his distinctive figure style made him the most sought-after painter in Cologne.

Mark and Luke carry their evangelist symbols—the winged lion and the ox—while Barbara holds the tower that identifies her martyrdom. Lochner's treatment of the evangelists shows the same careful attention to attribute and costume as his treatment of the martyred saint, each figure given equal pictorial weight within the panel's hierarchical unity.