Altar der Heiligen Sippe

The Master of the Holy Kinship the Younger painted this Altar of the Holy Kinship around 1502 for the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. The Holy Kinship, or Heilige Sippe, depicting the extended family of Jesus, was one of the most popular devotional subjects in Cologne. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

The altarpiece arranges the many members of the Holy Family in a detailed domestic-ceremonial setting, with the rich coloring and careful drawing characteristic of the Cologne school.