![Feilitzsch Altarpiece [central panel]: The Virgin and Child with St Anne by Lucas Cranach the Elder](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Lucas_Cranach_d.%C3%84._-_Der_Feilitzscher_Altar_(ge%C3%B6ffnet)_(cropped2).jpg&width=1200)
Feilitzsch Altarpiece [central panel]: The Virgin and Child with St Anne
Historical Context
The Feilitzsch Altarpiece central panel, depicting the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, painted in 1512, is the devotional focal point of this altarpiece commissioned by the Feilitzsch family. The Anna Selbdritt composition—showing three generations of the Holy Family—was among the most popular devotional subjects in German art around 1500. The central panel would have been revealed when the altarpiece wings were opened on feast days, creating a moment of visual splendor in the liturgical experience. Cranach’s treatment combines the warmth of a family scene with the hieratic dignity expected of an altarpiece centerpiece, demonstrating his mastery of the devotional altarpiece format.
Technical Analysis
The central panel shows Cranach's ability to create a monumental, centralized composition appropriate for the altarpiece's focal position, with careful attention to the maternal grouping.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the central panel's Anna Selbdritt composition: three generations unified in a single devotional image, the altarpiece's most important element receiving the central position.
- ◆Look at how Cranach creates physical connection between the three figures — hands touching, gazes interacting — to make the family grouping feel alive.
- ◆Find the compositional integration with the surrounding wings: the central panel's figures relate spatially to the donors on the recto wings flanking them.
- ◆Observe how the Feilitzsch Altarpiece survives relatively intact, allowing us to understand how Cranach designed panel-altarpiece programs as unified wholes.
