The Birth of Christ

Around 1520 Albrecht of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mainz and a prince-elector, was setting up a new college of canons in Halle, the Neues Stift, and ordering altarpieces for its church from the best German painters he could hire. The museum thinks this panel most likely hung there. If so, it has travelled. When Halle went over to the Reformation, Albrecht left the town and took his pictures with him to Mainz and Aschaffenburg, and this one came to Munich in 1814 from the palace gallery at Aschaffenburg.

The picture plays an odd trick on the eye. A thick pillar stands right at the front and blocks part of the view. Mary and Joseph kneel in the ruins of a palace, small angels tend the baby, and the light in the scene comes from the child himself. Far behind them, one angel is bringing the news to the shepherds.