Orlier altar, outer wings: Angel and Madonna of Annunciation, inner wings: Saint Anthony and Nativity

Martin Schongauer's Orlier Altar is one of the most important surviving works of the leading Upper Rhine painter of the fifteenth century, the master whose engravings influenced Albrecht Dürer before Dürer could meet him in person — Schongauer died in 1491 just as Dürer arrived in Colmar. The outer wings showing the Annunciation and the inner wings depicting Saints Anthony and the Nativity belong to the Dominikanerkirche in Colmar and form part of the most complete altarpiece complex attributable to Schongauer. His style — refined, elegantly calligraphic, highly detailed — represented the summit of the Upper Rhine tradition and was widely disseminated through his engravings, which circulated far more broadly than his paintings. This 1470 altarpiece predates the engravings' greatest influence and shows the painter's work in its original painted context.

Schongauer's calligraphic line quality — so celebrated in his engravings — translates into his painted work as an unusually precise and graceful treatment of drapery folds, which flow with a musical regularity that distinguishes his style from the heavier northern German tradition. Oil or mixed techniques allow him to achieve the translucent delicacy of shadow in fabric that characterises his approach. The Annunciation scenes on the outer wings use gold grounds handled with refined restraint.