Atteler Altar: Gastmahl des Herodes mit Enthauptung Johannes des Täufers

Sigmund Gleismüller was a painter active in Nuremberg or its environs in the late fifteenth century, and his Atteler Altar panel depicting Herod's Feast with the Beheading of John the Baptist belongs to a significant altarpiece commission of the 1470s–80s. The scene combines two episodes — the banquet at which Salome dances and requests John's head, and the beheading — within a single composition, following the Matthean narrative. This dual-scene format was common in German altarpiece painting as a means of compressing narrative into a single image.

Gleismüller organises the composition across two zones: the courtly banquet with dancing Salome in the upper register, and the execution scene with the kneeling Baptist below. The contrast between festive courtly world and the brutal outdoor execution is emphasised through the spatial separation and contrasting palettes. The Nuremberg workshop manner is visible in the solid figure modelling and descriptive approach to costume.