Lot 1006 Dα

When the parents of the three year old Virgin Mary brought her to the temple to be consecrated to God, she is said to have climbed the 15 steps to the temple without help and subsequently dedicated her life to the Lord.

This panel with the popular depiction from the Life of the Virgin can be dated to around 1500 and localised to the region of Cologne due to its similarity to a panel with the same scene by the so-called Master of the Aachen Cabinet Doors. This predecessor is today housed in the treasury of Aachen cathedral. It displays a similar composition, but here the temple is depicted as a starkly symmetrical Gothic church, whereas in this panel a Romanesque rotunda forms the architectural backdrop.

The Master of the Aachen Cabinet Doors in turn based his version of this subject on a famous work in Cologne painted around 1470/1480 by an artist from this city who was given the notname "Master of the Life of the Virgin" (cf. fig. 1). This depiction was part of a highly important series of panels depicting the Life of the Virgin, the majority of which are housed in the Alte Pinakothek. This series influenced the depiction of the presentation of the Virgin in the Rhineland for many years, a fact to which the present panel testifies.

Whilst the Master of the Life of the Virgin depicts the scene taking place against a gold background, both the Master of the Aachen Cabinet Doors and the author of this panel choose a view into a city for the background. It is interesting to note that the temple in this work is depicted with a trefoil apsis, an architectural form that can be found in several imporant churches in Cologne, such as Sankt Maria im Kapitol, Groß Sankt Martin, Sankt Aposteln, and Sankt Andreas.