Saint Luke Painting the Virgin Mary

Legend has it that St Luke the Evangelist painted a miraculous portrait of the Virgin Mary. For this reason he is the patron saint of painters, and images of him often adorned chapels held by painters’ organisations. This relief sculpture by Jakob Beinhart was presumably part of an altarpiece in the chapel belonging to a painters’ guild at St Mary Magdalene Church in Wrocław. This work, depicting the Virgin Mary weaving, with the Child at play, is based on an earlier woodcut by Veit Stoss titled The Holy Family. This is the only known depiction of St Luke painting Mary’s portrait, in which the Virgin is shown weaving a tunic for Jesus.

Mention of the tunic appears in the Gospel of St John: Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat, now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith: They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.

Many legends concerning the seamless tunic arose during the Middle Ages. They often claimed that as Jesus grew, the tunic grew with him. In this relief, the painting of Mary’s portrait is shown alongside the weaving of Jesus’ tunic. Such a juxtaposition invites comparison between the creation of the miraculous painting and creation of the miraculous robe. Additionally, in presenting such a scene, Beinhart, and Stoss before him, are equating themselves with St Luke – whose work of art is almost tantamount to a relic as holy as Christ’s tunic.

The relief depicting St Luke is also exceptional for its finish, as the artist elected to forego the use of colour in favour of natural wood. In this respect, the piece is a one-of-a-kind in Silesia. Altarpieces finished in this manner were produced from the 1490s mainly in the southern German regions of Swabia and Franconia. The lack of colour was a way for artists to showcase their skill in using sculpture to produce effects that were typically achieved with paint.