A man wearing a breastplate and faulds that extend to his knees holds a halberd and stands on a narrow platform. A yellow shield with a housemark is on the right. He is dressed in red trousers and stockings and wears voluminous red sleeves and a black hat decorated with white feathers. He stands against a wooded landscape with low hills and an edifice with towers. The scene is framed by composite columns with a voluted base, brown shafts and yellow capitals. Above this scene, another landscape shows a man and woman on the left seated at a table embracing while on the right, a man and woman stand and also embrace.

The inscription panel is a replacement. All else is intact. A few mending leads near the man’s feet and in the upper landscape do not mar the legibility of the panel.

The image is a standard format for a heraldic representation. The proud citizen/soldier demonstrates his readiness to take up his arms in defense of his city. The representation of amorous couples above may refer to the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), here being lured by prostitutes so that he spends all his inheritance.

Enamel paints are absent in the piece, an indication of an early date. The depiction of landscape exploits the effect of silver stain on blue glass to depict leaves and ground. Three-dimensional modeling relies predominantly on transition of light to dark through gradual tones blended to make a smooth transition. Stickwork is mainly used for outlines, as in the plumes of the hat. One may cite as comparison the Arms of Wilhelm Schupp, attributed to Lienhard Brun I and dated to around 1529 (Allerheiligen Museum, Schaffhausen, Mus Inv. 21072; Hasler, 2010, pp. 188–90). The landscape uses the same system of silver stain on blue and the modelling of the figures favors the same gradual transitions.

Cited in:
Record of the Art Museum, 1963, p. 19.
Raguin, & Morgan, 1987, p. 87.