A dense collection of images of saints, all labeled, appears in the upper half of the panel. Below are three coats of arms in a pyramid form. The composition of the panel, and its attraction rests on its highly ornate architectural borders and background. Massive baroque columns of red and green pot metal glass frame the panel. Above their broad, foliate bases, a band of uncolored glass with silver stain and enamel shows male and female heads in profile. Their ornate capital displays yellow foliage on the front and male harpies in profile flanking the interior scene. At the top, surrounding the imagery, is a blue arch with silver-stained green intertwining vines and leaves. In the center bottom, a relief of harpies, putti, and other mythological figures frame the blue coat of arms. Above that, a bright green ground silhouettes the blue and red arms.

The technique is quite sophisticated although the drafting style appears somewhat provincial. Similar elaborate borders can be found in a series of panels dated 1534–35 associated with the family May in the Canton Aargau notably the Heraldic panel of Katharina May-von Wattenwyl by an unidentified artist in the circle of Hans Funk, 1534/35 (Hasler, 2002, pp. 83, 253–55, cat. no. 128). See other panels in the collection of the Swiss National Museum, Zurich, representing Benedict May, dated 1534 and Glado II May, dated 1535 (Schneider, 1970, vol. 1, p. 81, cat. nos. 206 and 207).

The Latin motto: Sola Virtvs Nō Moritvr can be translated “courage alone does not die.” Such sentiments can easily be attributed to a group of individuals joined together in an enterprise. This representation of the many saints in a widow of 1536 can be seen as a vigorous statement of Catholic allegiance. The donors clearly wanted to testify to their belief in the intercession of saints, a practice rejected by the Lutheran and Zwinglian reformers. Martin Luther, who was excommunicated by the pope in January 1521, developed a vigorous following and by 1546, the year of his death, his ideas condemning many Catholic practices had gained a wide acceptance in German-speaking lands. Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, dominated politics in Zurich in the 1520s.

The saints grouped in the front are core players in the story of Christian redemption: the Gospel personalities of Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, and the seated Virgin holding the Christ Child in her lap. Anne holds the infant Virgin Mary in her arms. To the right, St. Elizabeth of Hungary (Thuringia) is shown with a petitioning child at her feet. She was an early thirteenth-century princess who after her husband’s death joined the Third Order of St. Francis, a lay Franciscan group, devoting herself to aiding the poor. Her shrine is in Marburg, Germany. St. Emma dates from the tenth century, a countess venerated for her good works and associated with the city of Bremen.

The second row begins with three male saints labeled Cebedevs (?), Deofpas (?), and Alechevs, who may be Alexius of Rome. Next is Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist followed by St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus. The final row begins on the left with the biblical king Solomon. Next to him is John the Baptist holding a book supporting a lamb with a cross. The symbol refers to John’s exclamation when he saw Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29). Next is a man dressed as a monk labeled St. Joseph, who is yet to be identified. Then follows St. James the Greater, dressed, as was then traditional, as a pilgrim. He is wearing the pilgrim’s hat bearing a scallop shell in the center flanked on the left by crossed staffs, and on the right by a monk. The emblems are pilgrim’s badges acquired at his shrine in Santiago de Compostela on the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. St. Mella is unidentified. Could this possibly be Saint Mellitus of Canterbury (died 624)? He is followed by the Apostle St. James the Less and a young male saint who may be the widely venerated Vincent of Saragossa, martyred in about 304.

Cited
Hayward, Kummer-Rothenhäusler, & Raguin, 1987, p. 66.
Hayward, Kummer-Rothenhäusler, & Raguin, 1989, p. 311.