Anbetung der Heiligen Drei Könige

The Meister von Sigmaringen's Anbetung der Heiligen Drei Könige (Adoration of the Magi), painted around 1515 and associated with the Collection Hirscher, is a work of southern German or Swabian painting from the period just before the Reformation transformed the artistic landscape of German-speaking regions. The Adoration of the Magi — the three wise kings from the East presenting gifts to the infant Christ — was among the most elaborate and iconographically rich subjects in Christian art, allowing for lavish display of exotic costumes, retinues, and luxury goods. The Meister von Sigmaringen is an anonymous master defined by a group of stylistically coherent works from the Swabian region.

South German panel painting of this period combines German Gothic expressiveness with Italian Renaissance spatial clarity. The procession of the Magi provides opportunity for varied costume and physiognomy, rendered with the precise, somewhat linear quality characteristic of Swabian workshop production.