German, Upper Rhine or Franconia, circa 1490-1500 | Relief with the Adoration of the Magi

With Bresset, Paris, by 1972;
private collection, Belgium

J. Boccador and E. Bresset, Statuaire médiévale de collection, 1972, vol. 2, p. 196 and fig. 212;
R. Didier and H. Krohm, Les Sculptures médiévales allemandes dans les Collections Belges, exh. cat. Société Générale de Banque, Brussels, 1977, pp. 145-146, no. 64

Didier and Krohm (op. cit.) convincingly compared the present Adoration to a relief with the Holy Family in Guebwiller, which is thought to have been made in the Upper Rhine region in the late 15th century (Karlsruhe, op. cit., pl. 64). The Virgin's features and hair, the male figures' heads with short necks, as well as the drapery style, are closely analogous to the figures of Mary and Joseph in the Guebwiller relief. While this indicates a common geographical origin, the present Adoration also relates to similar representations from Franconia, such as a relief of the same subject photographed in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in 1932 (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, 
https://www.bildindex.de/document/obj00023715). 

RELATED LITERATURE
Spätgotik am Oberrhein: Meisterwerke der Plastik und des Kunsthandwerks 1450-1530, exh. cat. Karlsruher Schloss, Karlsruhe, 1970, pl. 64 and cat. no. 66