Predella mit Steinigung des hl. Stephanus

Sebastian Dayg was a Bavarian painter active in the early sixteenth century whose work survives in the Bavarian State Painting Collections. This predella panel depicting the Stoning of Saint Stephen — Predella mit Steinigung des hl. Stephanus — dated around 1520, would have formed the lower register of a larger altarpiece, where supplementary narrative scenes were painted. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death in Jerusalem for his preaching. Predella panels offered painters a narrative format distinct from the iconic presentation of main altar panels, allowing for more dynamic action scenes that complemented the devotional stability of the images above.

The predella format is horizontal and narrative, requiring Dayg to distribute the crowd of stoners across a compressed frieze-like composition. Stephen kneels in prayer at centre as stones are hurled, in a palette that is warm, solid, and devotionally earnest.