Austrian School, circa 1510

We are grateful to Mr. Ludwig Meyer for identifying this panel as a typical product of the painters working in Upper Austria and the Salzburger Land. The composition is closely based on The Bearing of the Cross from Dürer's woodcut series The Small Passion (B. 37), itself a response to Martin Schongauer's earlier treatment of the subject (circa 1480, B. 21). Dürer's print is dated 1509, providing a terminus post quem for the present lot and a likely date of circa 1510. The panel is likely to have hung on the left side of a small altar, perhaps before a sculptural shrine.