At the end of the 15th century, the Dominican Order of Frankfurt commissioned Hans Holbein the Elder (1465–1525) and his workshop to design a new high altar. The result was a huge hinged altarpiece with images from the life of Christ, as well as two trees of life; one with the Tree of Jesse, i.e., with the ancestral lineage of Christ, and one with the major saints of the Dominican Order. 
The fragment of the head of Mary is from the panel representing the birth of Christ. The rest of the panel has unfortunately been lost, but thanks to a draft preserved at the Berlin Museum of Prints and Drawings, we still know what the picture looked like. Visible in the fragment next to the redhaired head of the Mother of God, who is wearing a graceful headdress and a cloth, are a few sheep in the background to the left, while to the right of Mary we get, a glimpse of part of a red sleeve that – again compared with the Berlin drawing – belongs to one of the shepherds who have come running.