The Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds

This and the two other plaques in the V&A (Inv.nos: 145-1866, 378-1871) belong to the same ensemble, together with two other reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (showing the Three Maries at the Sepulchre and the Incredulity of St. Thomas);

They are the same size and are carved in an identical style and display the same border designs.

The size and number of the plaques suggest that they probably once formed a large altar frontal or decorated a pulpit, in an ensemble that probably consisted of nine panels.

Each is made up of several pieces of ivory, and there is evidence that they were once coloured. The expressionless oval faces in three-quarter profile and the rounded forms are features of Romanesque sculpture and manuscript painting in the Cologne area. Unusually the carver used rows of dots to emphasise curved lines.