Chrismas - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 2005 - 45 Euro Cent

The special postage stamps of the series "Christmas" appear with supplements in favor of the working group of the free welfare care to the normal postage value. The proceeds from these supplements will be donated to the Federal Welfare Association, a consortium of charitable organizations. The current stamps show paintings by the late medieval painter Stefan Lochner, who was born around 1400 in Hagnau am Bodensee. In his pictures, Lochner ingeniously combined stylistic devices of the Sea-Swabian painting with the art of the Dutch, Flemish and Cologne schools. So he became one of the most important artists of the Cologne School and a respected and wealthy citizen. In 1444 he bought a representative Cologne town house, acquired three years later the Cologne Bürrechte and moved as a representative of the painters' guild in the city council. In 1451 Lochner was a victim of the plague epidemic in Cologne. The special stamp "Adoration of the Child" shows the small portrait tablet of the same name, which is kept in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It was built in 1445 and shows the Annunciation to the shepherds and the adoration of the newborn Christ child by Mary. The mute dialogue between mother and child is expressed by the blessing gesture of the boy and underlined by the head posture of ox and donkey and the angels looking in to the stable window.