Kneeling Magus on the left

The head, hands and garment of the elderly bearded Magus kneeling on the left are drawn precisely and in detail. The painting follows the fine lines of his facial features very closely. However the graphic lay-in of the clasped hands was slightly changed in the painted version, and the originally planned decoration of the hem of the sleeve was omitted altogether.

Below his head, we can see graphic indications of a sword hilt and pommel together with a hand. Here, two kinds of drawn lines seem to be superimposed: on the one hand the fine lines that describe the figure of the Wise Man including the hatching that models the light and shade, and on the other some conspicuous thick lines, which continue, increasingly dark, in the raised sheath of the sword.

The majority of the figures and motifs on the central panel seem to be underdrawn with broad lines of this kind. As they deviate substantially, both technically and stylistically from the drawing vocabulary that reveals the authorship of Lochner in the figure of the Magus, the Virgin and the young man on the far left, we must presume the involvement of a further draughtsman in the planning of the central panel. The superimposition in the area of the sword hilt, as described, could indicate that this person continued and completed an underdrawing begun by Lochner.

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