Saint Ulrich of Augsburg,
oil on panel, 93.5 x 28 cm, framed 

Provenance:
Private collection, Upper Austria

A tentative attribution to the Master of the Crispin Legend (active in Salzburg 1510/1525) has been suggested.

In the present painting Saint Ulrich of Augsburg (890–973) is depicted wearing the vestments of a bishop and holding his attribute, a fish which is based on a legend from his vita: on a Friday morning he gave a messenger a piece of leftover roast meat, as food for the journey back. When the messenger attempted to prove to his master, the Duke of Bavaria, that the Bishop had committed an offence during Lent, the meat had been transformed into a fish.

As a bishop, Ulrich stood in unshakeable loyalty to the German emperor, Otto the Great. Under repeated attacks from the Magyars in the territories of Bavaria and Swabia, he personally led the defence of the city and helped defeat the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, thus ending the Hungarian invasions of Western Europe. In 962, he withdrew from all secular obligations in order to be able to pursue his pastoral duties undividedly. Long after the Middle Ages, he was still one of the most venerated saints, where many churches and monasteries were consecrated to him. His tomb is in the Augsburg monastery of St Ulrich and Afra.