Detail View: Visual Resources Teaching Collection: Adoration of the Magi Altar

aahi0000130

Adoration of the Magi Altar

full view when open

This triptych, for many Bosch's masterpiece, was possibly made between 1495 and 1500. It was painted for the chapel of the Guild of Our Lady in Hertogenbosch Cathedral and its formal characteristics suggest that it was intended to be a worship object. It was later moved to the Town Hall escaping thus from the iconoclastic revolt. Subsequently it belonged to Jean Casembroot, a supporter of William of Orange, who was sentenced by a court-martial and whose properties were confiscated in Brussels. Philip II sent this work to El Escorial and gave it a place of honour in his private oratory. The closed triptych represents Saint Gregory Mass, painted in grisaille. In a central altar an Ecce-Homo is surrounded by scenes of the Passion with the Crucifixion above. Around a pope several characters are portrayed and among them two unidentified donors. Inside, the central panel depicts The Adoration of the Magi. The side wings portray the donors, with their respective coats of arms, one of them reads Een voer al (one for all). Most of critics have identified them as members of Bronkhorst and Mosschuyse families. Behind them, St. Peter and St. Agnes –their respective protectors- are represented, recognizable by their attributes. The Adoration follows the rules established for the subject. The Kings offer their gifts to the Child sitting in his mother's lap: gold, incense and myrrh, according to St. Mathew's Gospel. All the figures are in the foreground allowing to appreciating the sumptuousness of the dresses –the large collar of one of the Magi's cape is embroidered with The visit of the Queen of Sheba to Salomon- and the magnificent goldsmith work depicting The Sacrifice of Isaac. In the shack there are disturbing figures, like the half-naked man in the doorway with a sore at his leg, who has been interpreted by some as Jewish symbolism or as representing the Antichrist. The landscape which fills the background of the three panels unifies the whole providing a panoramic view linked by the high horizon line. Different architectures, a lake with a fortified island and different scenes scattered on the meadows, crowd the varied landscape. (Museo del Prado accessed 2007-10-12)

ca. 1510

creation

Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish, ca. 1450-1516)

male

Netherlandish painter and draughtsman. The most distinctive and idiosyncratic of 15th-century Netherlandish artists, he produced a body of work remarkable for its depiction of fantastic, often diabolic, creatures, generally moralizing representations of the consequences of sin and folly. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-26)

Netherlandish Renaissance-Baroque styles

16th century

Bibles

Antichrist

Adoration of Christ child

St. Agnes

St. Peter (d. 304)

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint

Jesus Christ

donors

Magi

landscapes (representations)

saints

triptychs

paintings

oil on panel

138 cm (H) x 72 cm (W); 138 cm (H) x 34cm (W) when closed

Signed

Museo del Prado

repository

2084

accession

Madrid, Spain

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