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Cranach Altar in Rome Reveals Apostle Peter Modeled on Late Homeless German Burkhard Scheffler

Display at Campo Santo Teutonico during a Naumburg placement dispute led to a photo-confirmed identification of Burkhard Scheffler.

Overview

  • The reworked CranachTriegel altarpiece is temporarily exhibited in the Marienkirche at the Campo Santo Teutonico, just steps from Scheffler’s grave.
  • Leipzig painter Michael Triegel used a 2018 sketch of Scheffler to paint the Apostle Peter on the new middle panel, depicting him with a red cap.
  • Scheffler, a 1961-born former engineer from Germany’s Ruhr region, spent years sleeping under St. Peter’s colonnades and died of exposure in November 2022.
  • Pope Francis mentioned Scheffler in a Sunday prayer and arranged his burial at the German cemetery beside St. Peter’s Basilica.
  • The Rome display follows an unresolved dispute over the altar’s placement in UNESCO-listed Naumburg Cathedral that has drawn conservation scrutiny.