Beheading of Saint Dorothea

Albrecht Dürer considered Hans Baldung, called Grien, his most gifted pupil. This panel quite precisely explains why Dürer appreciated this painter so much. In a rather small format, Grien aptly combined several episodes from the legend of St Dorothea: in the foreground the martyr is decapitated by the executioner, whereas in the middle plane, the surprised scribe Theophilus receives a basket of fresh apples and roses that Dorothea had him sent from the heavenly garden. Theophilus appears in the painting once more, at the head of a group of mercenaries. The gesture of his hands and facial expression suggest his conversion to Christian faith, which occurred after this encounter. The painter succeeded in capturing the season - St Dorothea´s feast is on the 6th of February, when the thawing snow and the Sun peeping through darkened clouds herald the coming Spring.