Naumburg (dpa/sa) – The Leipzig artist Michael Triegel has completed a church painting in Naumburg Cathedral that was created by Lukas Cranach the Elder in 1519 and later partially destroyed. The three-winged altarpiece was originally created for the Marienaltar of the Naumburg West Choir, as the United Cathedral Donors announced. The central part with a depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary with child was destroyed in 1541 in the course of an anti-image campaign. It was replaced by Triegel’s work and now forms a unit with the two preserved original side wings.
The large-format side wings created by Cranach the Elder with portraits of the two donor bishops and various saints have survived for centuries. Until now, they were exhibited in the treasury vault of Naumburg Cathedral. The complete altarpiece with the works that were created about 500 years apart is now in the Naumburg West Choir.
On Sunday afternoon, the United Cathedral Donors and the Evangelical Church Community of Naumburg have invited to an ecumenical Vespers on the occasion of the inauguration of the altar retable in the west choir.
The artist Michael Triegel, born in Erfurt in 1968, is considered, along with Neo Rauch, to be the most important representative of the New Leipzig School.
