House Altar with Visitation and Adoration of the Shepherds

The Master of 1518's House Altar with the Visitation and Adoration of the Shepherds represents an important survival of the small-scale portable altarpiece type popular for aristocratic private devotion in early sixteenth-century Antwerp. The Visitation, depicting Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth who was also miraculously pregnant, and the Adoration of the Shepherds were complementary scenes in the Nativity cycle, presenting the moments when Christ's divinity was first recognized by human witnesses. The Master of 1518, an anonymous Antwerp painter named for a dated work, exemplifies the high quality of Antwerp's commercial religious painting production.

The multi-panel format follows the altarpiece tradition, providing an expanded devotional program with individual panels working together to create a unified theological and visual statement.