Large Altar Tabernacle with the Holy Kinship, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection

It is difficult to imagine this tabernacle, shaped like a monumental triumphal arch housing the Holy Kinship, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, in real life. It has been suggested, however, that the etching shows an altar tabernacle in the church of the Dominican convent of Saint Mary Magdalen realized for the Augsburg nobleman Philipp Adler. Unfortunately, the interior of the church was redone in the early eighteenth century, making it virtually impossible to verify the theory. The etching itself is proof enough of Hopfer’s bravura as a designer of ornament and applied art objects. It attests to Northern European interest in the stylistic vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance, which increased exponentially in the second decade of the sixteenth century, and the clever ways in which this style was adapted by artists in southern Germany. Also remarkable is the intense contrast between light and dark and the gradient of shades in between, which Hopfer realized by subjecting the plates to two different etch baths before printing.