Detail of one of the Three Kings from an Adoration Group in the Cloisters, Sept. 2007

Three Kings from an Adoration Group
Poplar, polychromy, and gilding
Germany, Swabia, before 1489
From the high altar of the Cistercian abbey at Lichtenthal in Baden-Wurttemberg (Sudbaden), near Baden-Baden

Accession # 52.83.1-3

These three kings along with a seated Virgin and Child formed the central shrine of a large altarpiece with painted wings. The attentuated, elegant figures and the broad drapery patterns are characteristic of Late Gothic sculpture in Swabia. The Virgin and Child are still in the convent for which the altar was made, and the two painted wings- representing, on the outer sides, the Annunciation and the Visitation and, on the inner sides, the Birth and the Dormition of the Virgin- are in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe. One of the wings is dated 1489 and bears the name of the donatrix, Margarethe, daughter of the margrave Karl I of Baden and abbess of Lichtenthal from 1477 until her death in 1496.

Text from the Cloisters label.