The Four Apostles: Saints Mark and Paul

The work titled The Four Apostles: Saints Mark and Paul was created by Albrecht Dürer in 1526 as an oil painting on lime panel. It forms part of a diptych, with the right panel currently housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany, within the Bavarian State Painting Collections. The piece was produced during Dürer's active period in the German Renaissance and depicts Saints Mark and Paul alongside symbolic attributes of a book and a sword.

The right panel of Albrecht Dürer's diptych The Four Apostles, depicting Saints Mark and Paul, is held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, Germany. It resides within the permanent collection of the Alte Pinakothek. Created in 1526, this oil-on-lime-panel work measures 212.4 cm in height and 76.3 cm in width.

The provided sources do not list a specific inventory or accession number for this panel, nor do they document any past or future exhibition history beyond its current institutional location.

Albrecht Dürer's 1526 oil painting The Four Apostles: Saints Mark and Paul was created during the German Renaissance as part of a diptych, with the right panel now housed in Munich's Alte Pinakothek. The work depicts the evangelist Mark holding a book and the apostle Paul with a sword, reflecting contemporary religious themes within Dürer's broader oeuvre of Reformation-era art. Its composition and iconography have been studied for their synthesis of Northern European detail and Italianate proportion, situating it within the evolution of devotional imagery in early 16th-century Europe, particularly in relation to Dürer's engagement with both scholarly humanism and devotional reform.

The later reputation of The Four Apostles: Saints Mark and Paul reflects its significance within the German Renaissance, particularly through Dürer's integration of precise observation and symbolic narrative. The work's compositional balance and use of perspective influenced subsequent religious art across Northern Europe, with artists adapting its figure arrangements and iconographic details. Its display at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich cemented its status as a canonical example of Reformation-era devotional painting, studied for both technical mastery and theological nuance.

Created in 1526, this oil painting by Albrecht Dürer presents two figures traditionally identified as the evangelist Mark and the apostle Paul. Executed during the later phase of Dürer’s career, the work exemplifies the Northern Renaissance’s interest in combining precise observation with symbolic content. The composition is now part of the permanent collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.