Four scenes from the life of Christ:
The Circumcision;
Christ among the Doctors;
The Taking of Christ;
The Crucifixion,
on the reverses fragments of the "Arma Christi",
tempera and gold on panel, 40 x 25 cm, 40.5 x 25 cm, 39.5 x 24.5 cm, 39 x 25.5 cm, framed, a set of four (4)

Provenance:
sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 3 June 1959, lot 162 (as Salzburg Master, circa 1470–80);
Private collection, Munich;
by descent to the present owner

We are grateful to Björn Blauensteiner for suggesting an attribution to the Master of the Acts of Mercy (active in Passau or Salzburg circa 1460/70). He recognises the hand of this master particularly in the Circumcision.

These four late Gothic panels depicting individual episodes from the life of Christ may have once belonged to a side panel of an altarpiece, as suggested by the Arma Christi on the reverse. The master here still adheres to the late Gothic traditions of the time, notably the distinct physiognomy and sculpted expressions of the figures. The attribution of the present works to a painter in Salzburg was suggested by Ernst Buchner in 1957 on the basis of formal and colouristic affinities with works by Rueland Frueauf the Elder (circa 1440–1507) and by the Master of the Laufen Legend of Saint George.