Room 53

Jan Gossaert’s The Adoration of the Kings surrounds Mary and the infant Christ with visitors, rich objects and closely observed detail. The painting was made for an altar, where its scale and subject formed part of Christian worship. Other pictures here once belonged to ensembles whose panels opened and closed. Some include the people who paid for them, placed beside holy figures as an act of devotion and remembrance. Later sales and dismantling separated many such panels from their original companions. Compare a large public altarpiece with a smaller devotional image. Their present display on gallery walls can make it easy to forget how differently they were first used.