FRAGMENT OF THE NATIVITY ALTARPIECE

TYPOLOGY 

Today León cathedral's Nativity altarpiece has only one large-sized composition comprising two planes with quite different features. In the Nativity/Adoration of the Magi pictorial passage standing to the fore, the rounded figures of the Holy Virgin and Saint Joseph set against a plain background simply do not fit in with the landscape with its large barn containing the figures of the ox and mule. These features, which are most unusual in Flemish altarpieces, suggest the altarpiece has undergone a profound change in appearance.

The upper part of the altarpiece dedicated to the Announcement to the Shepherds fits in better since it is a high-relief whose figures are almost completely free-standing, but well blended into a landscape containing several environmental references: rocks, trees, buildings, etc.. Taking everything into consideration, this lack of harmony between the two different parts of the relief, plus the fact that unfinished sections can be observed on the foot of the relief, confirm our suspicion that the original aspect of the altarpiece must have been quite different.