Today on the First Sunday in Lent the liturgy refers to the Temptations of Christ in the wilderness. With this in mind Wikipedia has as its Picture of the Day this painting by the fifteenth century Tyrolese artist Michael Pacher which includes all three of the Temptations.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
The life and surviving painted and sculptured works of Pacher, who lived from c.1435-1498, are outlined in the Wikipedia account at Michael Pacher
The St Wolfgang altarpiece is one of his greatest compositions. Painted in the years 1471-9 it was installed in 1481 in the parish and pilgrimage church of St Wolfgang im Salzkammergut, where it remains to this day. It combines sculpture and painted panels
Pacher in coming from the Tyrol drew upon artistic styles of the German speaking lands to the north and from those of Italy to the south. I find his paintings fascinating in their richly textured complexity. His synthesis of northern Gothic with the early Renaissance was innovative and striking. His use of dramatic lighting, his attention to detail and the robustness of his figures create a world in which the physical and the spiritual intersect, admitting the viewer beyond the limits of ordinary perception.
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