Abraham and Melchizedek

The former high altar of the Augustinian church in Bordesholm was made by Hans Brüggemann (ca. 1480 – ca. 1540) and his workshop between 1514 and 1521. The relief made of oakwood on the winged altar narrates the Passion of Christ from the Arrest to the Assumption using no less than 392 carved figures. On the predella, “supper scenes” from the Bible can be seen, for example, the Sacrificial offering of bread and wine of Melchizedek. These scenes are antitypes of the eucharist. In 1666, after the dissolution of Bordesholm abbey under the Reformation the altar was transferred to the Cathedral of Schleswig. The cast was made by the plaster casting workshop of City Museum of Applied Arts, Flensburg in 1910, and it was exhibited in the Romanesque Hall. Probably lost during World War II, the current whereabouts of the artwork are unknown.