Anbetung der Könige, linke Hälfte

Friedrich Herlin was the leading painter in the Nördlingen-Dinkelsbühl region of Swabia in the 1460s–70s, and this panel of the Adoration of the Magi (left half) comes from his major altarpiece of Saint George's Church in Nördlingen, one of the finest surviving Late Gothic altarpiece ensembles in Germany. Herlin's innovation was the direct incorporation of Flemish panel painting conventions into German altarpiece production — he may have traveled to the Netherlands, or had access to Flemish works through the imperial trade routes. His Adoration shows the Magi's retinue extending beyond the frame, a spatial ambition that was novel in Swabian altarpiece painting.

Herlin's Flemish influence is most visible in his treatment of textiles and the crowd of attendants: individual faces in the Magi's retinue are differentiated with portrait-like specificity, a technique learned from Jan van Eyck's tradition of individualized crowd scenes. The eldest Magus kneels in the foreground with his gift; the architectural setting of the stable is rendered with structural logic. Oil technique, also Flemish-derived, gives greater depth to the shadows than German tempera tradition typically achieved.