The Marian portals in Augsburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Thann and Ulm - products of the Parler workshops - are amongst the most spectacular and innovative gothic enterprises of the fourteenth century. Teeming with hundreds of sculptured figures set in an elaborate narrative, they share a similar story: the life of the Virgin Mary and stories of the creation. Through a close examination of these visual narratives as a late medieval art of communication and exploration of their visual strategies, Assaf Pinkus, professor at the University of Tel Aviv, contextualizes their function within their cultural milieu.