Erster Wettenhauser Altar: Das Letzte Abendmahl Rückseite: Kreuztragung Christi

Martin Schaffner was the dominant painter in Ulm during the early sixteenth century, and the Wettenhauser Altar cycle represents his most sustained altarpiece commission. The Last Supper on the front and the carrying of the Cross on the reverse panel follow the standard Passion pairing demanded by Swabian liturgical custom: the Eucharistic institution scene faces the congregation during Mass, while the exterior carries Christ's journey to Golgotha as a Lenten meditation. Schaffner absorbed Dürer's influence from the Nuremberg prints circulating through Ulm while retaining the elongated figures typical of the Ulm sculptural tradition.

Schaffner works in tempera and oil on panel, employing a cool silver-grey and deep carmine palette influenced by Dürer's tonal engravings. The Cross-carrying scene compresses the crowd into a shallow frieze, creating density through overlapping heads rather than perspectival recession.