The Adoration of the Magi

North Netherlandish 15th Century

National Gallery of Art

About two dozen people ride horses or stand near a woman, Mary, holding a nude baby, Jesus in a landscape in this vertical painting. The people wear robes or tunics in shades of emerald green, ruby red, butter yellow, celestial blue, and ivory white. Jesus sits on Mary’s lap in the lower center of the composition, just in front of a tall structure with open walls and a pitched roof. A rectangular trough on legs is just behind Mary. Both Mary and Jesus have pale skin, blond hair, and long faces with flat features. A translucent veil covers Mary’s hair, which falls past her shoulders. Her red dress has a white collar and cuffs, and a midnight-blue cloak falls from her shoulders, across her lap, and puddles in thick folds on the ground. The cloak is edged in gold and jewels. One hand props up Jesus’s shoulder and the other wraps around his other forearm. Jesus faces and looks at a kneeling, pale-skinned man to our right who holds out a bronze-colored vessel with both hands. The kneeling man has a white beard and hair, and wears a gold-trimmed, hooded red cloak over a navy-blue robe. To our right, in the lower corner, three men stand and look toward Mary and Jesus. One wears a gold crown nestled into a tall green hat, a fur-lined red cloak, and a jeweled pendant. He holds the hinged lid of a gold cup open. The man next to him holds a green hat against his chest, and the third, smaller in scale, stands with his back to us. That man also holds a crowned hat, presumably of the kneeling man. Three more men up along the right edge of the composition ride horses and a fourth holds a chest across one shoulder. All of the people on this side have pale skin. Four more people ride horses, a camel, or stand at the back of the structure. Two of these men have dark brown skin, and one of those has exageratedly large red lips. The other two men are pale-skinned, and all four wear unusually shaped conical hats or turbans. Two pale-skinned men wearing brown or black and white monks’ robes face each other next to the half wall to our left. Three people stand in the lower left corner, closer to us. A person at the front of the group has light brown skin and wears a gold and jeweled crown around a column of black hair. The shimmering green tunic is edged with gold and jewels, and that person holds a gold and crystal orb in one hand. A person with dark brown skin wears a white turban, red robe, and gold rings and earrings stands behind, and the third person has light brown skin and stands with his back to us, looking at Mary and Jesus. These three people also have oversized red lips and bulbous noses. Behind this trio, up along the left edge of the composition, five pale- and brown-skinned people ride or move between five horses and one camel. Two more pale-skinned people stand inside the structure to our right, at that back corner. One has a white beard and hair partially covered by a fur-lined, hooded red robe. The other wears a waist-length, green velvet cape over red stockings and high boots. A square gold and jeweled panel hangs on a chain around his neck and a sword hangs at his side. Several monkeys and three thin dogs are scattered around the scene. Two dogs wear wide, jeweled collars and one wears a red and gold jacket. The monkeys have chains around their necks or waists. One monkey, close to us, has a gold up at the other end of the chain. People walk along a path across the landscape, beyond the structure. Olive-green and ochre-yellow hills roll back to a body of water with a town on the far shore in the background. The horizon comes three-quarters of the way up the composition, and a few wispy white clouds skirt across the ultramarine-blue sky above.