Benediktsaltar: Begräbnis und Himmelfahrt des hl. Benedikt

Gabriel Mälesskircher's panel from the Benedict Altar depicts both the burial and the assumption into heaven of Saint Benedict, a double scene combining earthly and celestial narrative within a single picture plane. Benedict, founder of Western monasticism, was among the most frequently depicted saints in Bavarian altarpiece programmes given the strong Benedictine presence in the region. Mälesskircher executed this panel for one of his Munich or Upper Bavarian commissions during his peak activity in the 1470s–80s, when he had a near-monopoly on major altarpiece production in the duchy.

The compositional split between the burial group below and the heavenly assumption above uses the traditional two-register devotional format, with gold ground for the celestial zone and a suggestion of earthly landscape below. Mälesskircher's figure types are broadly modelled with strong outlines, and the angels carrying Benedict upward are rendered with dynamic, spreading wing forms.