A Relief of the Nativity and a Group from an Adoration of the Magi

Abstract

The early sixteenth century wooden relief of the Nativity (Fig. 1), from Lombardy, in the Art Museum of Worcester, Massachusetts, has one particularly strange feature: it is divided into at least six parts, some or all of which evidently were interchangeable with others, so as to make a change of the representation possible.1 The parts are now fastened to a background consisting of two boards on which the sky has been painted. The outlines of the parts do not correspond exactly at all points, so that the lower boards are not completely covered. There are occasional voids in the representation, e.g., beside the left-hand top corner of the piece with the Holy Family. In general, the pieces fit so well together as to make it certain that they were not originally intended to be exhibited isolated in space, although too little of their reverse is visible to allow any conclusion as to how they were held in place in the original state. We can only suppose that it was done by fastening them against a background i...

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