The Adoration of the Kings

The elderly king kneels before Mary and the infant Christ, his hat and sceptre set on the ground. The child takes a coin from his gift. Around them, richly dressed visitors gather beneath the broken architecture of a once-grand building. Jan Gossaert, also known as Jean Gossart, painted this altarpiece in the early sixteenth-century Netherlands. The subject is the arrival of the three kings, who followed a star to worship Christ. Their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh connected royal tribute with ideas of sacrifice and death. Balthasar approaches from the left in elaborate clothing. The painter placed his own name on the king’s hat and on an attendant’s silver collar. In this crowd, even an inscription can belong to more than one story. Move your attention between a face and a piece of fabric. Individual hairs, fringes and metal surfaces receive extraordinary care. Gossaert combines this close detail with a much larger gathering of people, animals and angels, allowing the scene to unfold at several scales.