Group from the Crucifixion

This relief which probably formed part if a small side-altarpiece, depicts on the left side, the fainting Virgin supported by St John and one of the three Maries and on the right side the seated St Mary Magdalene is embracing the Cross and another Mary stands beyond her, gazing upwards. The Virgin, her head slightly inclined to her right wrings her hands in mourning, St John, St Mary Magdelene and the figure of Mary beside the Virgin look upward at the (now lost) figure of the Crucified Christ.

This relief is carved from three pieces of wood and the hands and faces of the figures show some trace of the original polychromy under the damaged layers of overpaint

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At the time of acquisition the relief was thought to be 'Lower Rhenish or Westphalian; 16th century' however the style of the figures, particularly the distinctive flat and irregular folds of the drapery and the facial types, can be associated with the oeuvre of the sculptor Lux Maurus, who was recorded in Kempten in Upper Swabia between 1515 and 1527.