Anbetung der Könige

The Meister des Riedener Altars (Master of the Riedener Altarpiece) takes his name from an altarpiece connected to a South German church or chapel at Rieden, and his Adoration of the Magi panel belongs to the late fifteenth-century South German workshop tradition of Epiphany altarpieces. The Adoration was the standard central panel subject for altarpieces dedicated to the Magi or the Nativity cycle, and South German churches produced a large number of these works between 1460 and 1520. The Master's style reflects the regional synthesis of Flemish descriptive technique with South German figural conventions.

The Master organises the standard Adoration composition: the Holy Family receiving the three kings and their retinue in a stable or ruined structure. The kings' costumes are rendered with attention to the exotic and the costly — this was the standard means of differentiating the three representatives of the world's peoples. Oil-tempera technique with landscape background. The handling is competent provincial workshop quality.