The Adoration of the Magi (Spanish: La Adoración de los Magos; Dutch: Aanbidding der wijzen), is a 1530 oil on panel triptych of the Nativity by the Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.Pieter Coecke van Aelst (I), The adoration of the Magi, c. 1530 on the site of the RKD
Background story The triptych depicts the story of the Adoration of the Magi which is only recounted in the Gospel of Matthew of the Christian Bible. According to the story, after the birth of Jesus, wise men or Magi travelled from the east following a star to find newly-born Jesus. When they found him lying in a manger, they bowed down and worshipped him and laid before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.Matthew 2 at BibleGateway While the Gospel story does not mention the number, position or nationality of the Magi, Western Christian traditions developed on the story by making inferences from the gifts given by the Magi. These led to a belief or assumption that the Magi were three kings who had come from the three known contintents of that time (Asia, Europe and Africa).Rubens Creative with kings at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp In due course the Magi were also ascribed names.Metzger, Bruce, New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional, and Patristic, Volume 10, 1980, BRILL, pp. 29-32 Description of the painting The triptych depicts over its three panels a continuous idealised manger scene with the three kings holding their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. King Caspar stands in the left panel, King Melchior is kneeling in the central panel, and King Balthazar stands in the right panel.
The composition is similar to the workshop version of the Adoration of the Magi in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in which Balthazar and Joseph are in the outer wings and Caspar in the central panel behind the kneeling Melchior.
Provenance This painting was earlier in the collection of Museo de la Trinidad in Madrid where in 1865 it was catalogued as by Lucas van Leyden.La Adoración de los Magos on museum website
Other treatments in the same time period Various triptychs of the subject in a similar arrangement were made by Coecke van Aelst, his workshop and other Flemish masters such as Joos van Cleve, the Master of Hoogstraeten, Jan van Dornicke and the Master of 1518:
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