Saint Ursula House Altar Probably Cologne or Rhineland, Germany, ca. 1520-60 Polychromed wood and oil on panel Dedicated to Saint Ursula, this house altar was probably commissioned by a wealthy burgher for private devotional use. Smaller shrines such as this were produced in emulation of the elaborate Late Gothic high altarpieces of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The legend of Ursula has little foundation in fact. When Ursula, a great beauty, finally agreed to marry, she demanded that she first travel for three years. She was accompanied on her journey by 11,000 (or perhaps only eleven) virgins, perhaps in a convoy of eleven ships (depending on the account). On their return, the travelers were massacred at Cologne by Huns who had besieged the city. Ursula was initially spared, but when she refused to marry the Huns' leader she was shot with three arrows. Ursula became Cologne's patron saint and the subject of many of the city's altarpieces.