Wettenhauser Hochaltar: Verkündigung an Maria Rückseite: Abschied Christi (linke Hälfte)

Martin Schaffner was the leading painter in Ulm in the early sixteenth century, and the Wettenhauser High Altar (1523) is one of his major commissions — from the Premonstratensian monastery of Weissenau at Weißenau near Ravensburg, which maintained close connections with Swabian noble families. The interior face shows the Annunciation, with Gabriel announcing to the Virgin; the reverse shows Christ's Farewell to the Disciples, the left half of a two-panel composition. The year 1523 places this commission in the immediate aftermath of Luther's challenge: Schaffner was producing major Catholic altarpieces even as German society fractured along confessional lines.

Schaffner's style combines the crisp draftsmanship of Swabian German painting with awareness of Augsburg's more cosmopolitan art production through Holbein and Burgkmair. The Annunciation composition uses architectural perspective to create depth — Gabriel enters from the left through a columned arch — while the Virgin's pose and drapery show awareness of Italian spatial conventions without direct imitation. Schaffner's color is warm and harmonious, with rich crimson and deep blue as the keynote colors for the main figures.