Open Access

Thomas Schares

• In the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu the surviving pieces of the late Gothic altar retable from Großprobstdorf (Târnava) are preserved and partly exhibited. The two outer wing pieces of this retable show some remarkable features. The one depicting a scene of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is part of one of the most prominent traditions of medieval and post-medieval hagiography; this saint and depictions of him also play an important role in sacral art that forms a reaction on the Plague. The second retable depicts the nowadays less known motif of the martyrdom of Saint Achatius. It will be shown, that both retables can be connected to a contemporary outbreak of the Plague in Transilvania, and that it seems very probable that this ensemble forms a direct reaction and response to this outbreak of the Plague. Evidence is brought here in the form of contemporary pamphlets which make use of exactly the same ensemble of Sebastian and Achatius. In the second part of this contribution, the case of the “crypto-portraits” of Vlad the Impaler and the depiction belonging to this group on the Sebastian-retable of Großprobstdorf will be discussed and brought into context. An answer to the question whether we see a depiction of Vlad on this and the other crypto-portraits will be attempted.