Pfingstwunder

The Meister des Rottweiler Hochaltars's Pfingstwunder (Pentecost Miracle), painted around 1440 and now in the Collection Hirscher, depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles — the Pentecost event that the Christian tradition marks as the founding of the Church. This anonymous master is named after the high altar of the collegiate church in Rottweil, a significant Swabian city, and represents the regional painting tradition of Swabia (southwestern Germany) in the mid-fifteenth century.

Tempera on panel. The composition follows the standard Pentecost arrangement with apostles grouped beneath descending tongues of flame and the dove above. The Swabian Gothic style renders solid, direct figures in bold, saturated color — the regional workshop's characteristic expressive manner.