Augustine Altarpiece: Saints Catherine and Barbara

The Augustine Altarpiece's Saints Catherine and Barbara by the Master of the St. John's Altarpiece, in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, shows two of the most popular virgin martyrs of the late medieval church paired as altarpiece wings. Catherine — the Alexandrian philosopher-saint tortured on the wheel — and Barbara — the saint imprisoned in a tower by her own father — were both celebrated for their combination of intellectual faith and physical courage. The anonymous German master, identified with a St. John's altarpiece, produced carefully crafted panels in the late Gothic manner for Nuremberg-area church patrons.

Catherine and Barbara are shown as elegant standing figures, their attributes — wheel and sword for Catherine, tower for Barbara — providing identification. The master uses the characteristic German late Gothic treatment of drapery with stiff, angular folds. Both figures have the idealized beauty standard for virgin martyrs.