ALTARPIECE OF THE LIFE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN

ICONOGRAPHY 

The Holy Virgin, patron saint of the parish from whence the reliefs come, is the protagonist of the altarpiece's three scenes. Pictorial narration begins with the Betrothal scene that has its own cycle in which the Virgin Mary and Joseph accompanied by three witnesses stand on either side of the priest in accordance with the normal distribution formula.

The Nativity of Christ referring to the role of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of Our Saviour occupies the centre vertical section of the altarpiece. In accordance with Early Medieval dictates in which Our Lord's parents kneel under a stable roof and adore the newborn Infant laying on the Holy Virgin's cloak. Three angels and a young woman wearing a turban, one of the apocryphal midwives, complete the group together with the figures of an ox and a mule.

Pictorial narration ends with the scene of the Circumcision in which the figures are distributed symmetrically: Mary and Simeon to the foreground and Ann, the Prophetess, to the rear.