Kaisheimer Altar: Mariae Heimsuchung

Hans Holbein the Elder painted the Visitation for the Kaisheim Altar in 1502. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, both miraculously pregnant, was a joyful scene that balanced the more somber Passion panels in the altarpiece program. Holbein's treatment captures the emotional warmth of the cousins' reunion. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

Oil on panel with Holbein's refined palette and sensitive rendering of the two women's emotional exchange. The landscape setting provides atmospheric depth behind the intimate foreground encounter.