Die Heiligen Laurentius und Wolfgang

Laurentius and Wolfgang are an unusual pairing: the Roman deacon-martyr Lawrence alongside the Bavarian bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg, whose cult was primarily regional. This panel from around 1490 in the Karlsruhe Kunsthalle may be from an altarpiece commissioned for a church with dual dedications or a patron with personal connections to both saints. Wolfgang's regional significance in Bavaria and Upper Swabia makes him a specifically South German choice; his pairing with the universal martyr Lawrence creates an interesting theological and geographical contrast within a single devotional object.

Lawrence is typically depicted with his attribute of the gridiron on which he was martyred — an implement Zeitblom renders as a bold diagrammatic form. Wolfgang as bishop carries the crozier of his pastoral office.