This publication provides a broader context to the results of the restoration, technological and art historical research currently being conducted on Hans Holbein the Elder's Hohenburg altarpiece wings, which belong amongst the National Gallery Prague's masterpiece. Hans Holbein painted them in the so-called grisaille technique (i.e. paintings executed entirely in grey shades) that is otherwise completely absent in his artistic output. The authors of the present publication therefore search for the reason that might have led the Master to use such a demanding technique. They also reveal the period context of the genesis of this truly unique artwork that Holbein most probably created for Monte St. Odile Abbey in Hohenburg (Lower Alsace), where he stayed in 1509.