Holy Trinity (Pieta Domini)

Master Francke's Holy Trinity (Pietà Domini), dated around 1435 and now in the National Museum in Warsaw, belongs to the type known as the Gnadenstuhl or Throne of Mercy: God the Father holds the body of the crucified Christ before him, with the dove of the Holy Spirit between them, representing the Trinity as a coherent theological unit. Master Francke was the foremost German painter of the early fifteenth century, active in Hamburg and trained probably in the Franco-Flemish tradition. The Gnadenstuhl was a specifically northern European devotional image that allowed painters to represent the Trinity visually despite the theological difficulty of depicting divinity. Francke's version is characterized by the emotional intensity and warm, rich color that distinguish his work.

Francke renders God the Father as an enthroned elderly figure supporting the dead Christ with a tenderness that is one of the distinctive qualities of his style. The warm flesh tones and rich reds and golds create a powerful chromatic impact against the gold ground. Drapery is elaborately folded in the German Gothic manner.