Ecclesia

Konrad Witz's Ecclesia, painted around 1435 for the Kunstmuseum Basel, personifies the Christian Church as a crowned female figure, paired with the blindfolded Synagoga in the Heilsspiegelaltar. This medieval allegory visualized the theological relationship between the Old and New Testaments Egg tempera on panel was the dominant technique of the period, demanding careful layer-by-layer construction and patient craftsmanship The work is now in the collection of Kunstmuseum Basel.

The triumphant female figure is rendered with Witz's powerful sculptural modeling, the crown and chalice painted with the material precision that characterizes his revolutionary approach to representing physical reality in paint.