St. Mary Magdalen Raising the Wife of the Prince of Marseilles

These two panels (AMAM 1941.73 & 74) with scenes of the life of Mary Magdalene, previously identified as by a South German or Swiss artist, have been recognized by researchers in Germany as part of a multi-panel altarpiece comprised of sculpted wood and paintings. The paintings are now attributed to Erhard Altdorfer, brother of the more famous artist Albrecht Altdorfer, known particularly for his landscapes.

Erhard Altdorfer worked in Regensburg, Bavaria, as well as in Schwerin, near Lübeck in northern Germany, where the incomplete altarpiece now resides. One of the AMAM's panels shows the Magdalene aiding in the healing of the wife and son of the Prince of Marseilles-a tale recounted in the Golden Legend, a collection of stories of the lives of the saints dating from the mid- to late thirteenth century. The other panel, as newly identified by German researchers, depicts the Magdalene appearing at the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227, when troops from Lübeck and Hamburg defeated Denmark.

The paintings, which entered the AMAM's collection in 1941, had previously been exhibited in Switzerland as by a Swiss artist. Once in the AMAM's collection, they were considered as originating from the Swabian-Swiss border region around Lake Constance. In fact, the panels are from Lübeck and were likely painted by Altdorfer when he lived near there. Altdorfer clearly took several motifs in the works from the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, by whom the AMAM possesses ninety-four prints.