Der Teufel in Gestalt eines Jünglings im Gemach der Kaiserin Kunigunde (Werkstatt)

The legend of Empress Kunigunde — wife of Emperor Henry II — included her famous ordeal of walking barefoot on hot plowshares to prove her fidelity, and the related episode of the devil appearing to her in the guise of a young man. This panel from Holbein the Elder's workshop belonged to a narrative series treating the Henry and Kunigunde legend, a subject with particular resonance in Bavaria where Henry II was venerated as a local saint. The legend combined miracle, temptation, and marital fidelity in ways that served both devotional and didactic purposes for the cycle's patrons.

Workshop execution maintains the narrative legibility required of a cycle panel while showing variation in quality across figures — the principal figures more carefully handled than architectural and decorative details. The Gothic-Renaissance transitional style visible in the costume and setting reflects the early sixteenth-century German context.