Altar facing: Scenes from the Life of the Holy Virgin

Altar facing: 
Scene from the Life 
of the Virgin
England, ca. 1335
Paint on wood 
H. 0.94 m ; W. 3.02 m
Thetford Priory, Suffolk, 
England (?)
Acq. 1864 ; Cl. 7726

This piece is one of the rare conserved examples of a painting given to a church in the Middle Ages in England. This altar front originally represented five episodes from the life of the Virgin in pieces worked and decorated with tiled patterns. The missing episode, at the left, probably represented the Annunciation. The scenes -- the Nativity, Death of the Virgin, Gifts of the Magi, Education of the Virgin -- are not set out in chronological order. Such a group is rare indeed since northern European medieval ecclesiastical furnishings have almost completely disappeared.