Fronleichnamsaltar: Die Mannalese

Bartholomäus Zeitblom painted this scene of the Gathering of Manna for the Corpus Christi Altar in 1502 in Ulm. The Old Testament episode of God providing manna in the desert was a standard typological prefiguration of the Eucharist. Zeitblom's clear, didactic narrative style served the theological program of the altar. 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 Zeitblom's bright, clear palette and orderly figure arrangement. The desert landscape and the gathering figures are rendered with the descriptive clarity characteristic of the Ulm school.