Peter-and-Paul-Altarpiece: The Lamentation of Christ

Peter-and-Paul-Altarpiece: The Lamentation of Christ, painted in 1522 and held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, is a Passion scene from an altarpiece dedicated to the two chief apostles. The lamentation, showing the dead Christ mourned by the Virgin, Magdalene, and the apostle John, serves as the emotional climax of the Passion narrative. The altarpiece’s dedication to Peter and Paul connects the Passion scene to the apostolic witness that transmitted Christ’s sacrifice to the Church. Painted during the Reformation’s early years, the work demonstrates the continued production of traditional altarpiece commissions even as Protestant theology was beginning to challenge the liturgical framework that gave such works their devotional function.

The Lamentation groups mourning figures around the body of Christ in Cranach's characteristic angular style. The emotional intensity of the scene serves the devotional purpose of the altarpiece.