RELIEF OF SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN

TYPOLOGY 

The repeated relocations of these reliefs and their successive incorporations into different altarpieces means that it is impossible for us to know what their original layout might have been.

When compared to the photographs published in the first edition of the History of Cifuentes by Layna Serrano, we can see that some elements are missing. Originally, the Annunciation included a curved canopy, four more figures stood to the rear of the scene depicting the Adoration of the Magi whilst two additional angels spread their wings as they flew higher than the angel who is crossing his hands in the Christmas scene.

The remaining scenarios do not appear to have suffered any alteration since then. Those that have been mutilated, however, are now smaller and less upright compared to the original figures that have been conserved to the present. The Christmas relief, which is also the widest - almost doubled its height - would seem to suggests that it used to occupy the central section of the altarpiece, as indeed the transcendence of the subject it represents would merit.