The "Meistersingers" Cabinet from St. Catherine's Church, Nuremberg

Artists: Adrian Stam(m)ler (painting), Jacob Schneider (cabinetmaking); Oil on linden wood. This work seems almost like a little winged altarpiece – which is no real surprise. After all, it was made for a church (which no longer survives). In the upper field of the main painting we see King David experiencing a heavenly vision of the Trinity. Since David was virtually the patron saint of singers, the two cherubs over his head hold both a royal crown and the honorary crown of the Meistersingers – the late medieval German guild for poetry and song. The twelve men in the gathering of course mirror the twelve apostles, but there's an extra man at the left margin: Hans Sachs. The perennial preservation of his extensive body of work seems to have made him a kind of "honorary chairman." When both doors are closed, the four Evangelists appear. Although not a masterpiece of painting, this cabinet remains one of the most significant items of physical evidence of the Meistersinger tradition in Nuremberg.