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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.

North Netherlandish 15th Century

The Adoration of the Magi, fourth quarter 15th century

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas transferred from panel

Dimensions

overall: 183 x 164.5 cm (72 1/16 x 64 3/4 in.)

framed: 215.9 x 203.2 x 12 cm (85 x 80 x 4 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.41

Artists / Makers

North Netherlandish 15th Century (painter)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Probably from a convent in the province of Guipuzcoa, Spain.[1] (Arthur J. Sulley, London);[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome), by 1926;[3] purchased April 1927 by Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955], New York;[4] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA.

[1] The precise basis for the tradition that the picture comes from the Basque province of Guipuzcoa has not been found. In a statement in the NGA curatorial files, Robert Quinn analyzed the history and holdings of various monastic establishments in the province, concluding that the most likely candidates for ownership of the Adoration were the Convento de Bidaurrete and the Convento de Aránzazu, both in Oñate; see also Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977: 65-66.

[2] See note 4; Max Friedlander, in a letter of 21 March 1937 to Kress commenting on a photograph of the painting, says "I have seen the original many years ago in London." This information and note 4 have been added to the provenance after the 1986 publication of the NGA systematic catalogue of Netherlandish paintings.

[3] See certificate of Roberto Longhi, November 1926, in the NGA curatorial files.

[4] The bill of sale for eight paintings is dated 6 April 1927 (copy in NGA curatorial files; see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2040.). The painting is described as follows: "A picture representing The Adoration of the Maggi[sic] - An early painting attributed to the Dutch School, said to be painted not later than 1480. Transferred from an oaken panel. From a Convent in Spain. From Mr. A. S.[sic] Sulley London." A label on the back of the painting repeats this, except for reference to Sulley, which is handwritten on the typewritten bill of sale.

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Convent, Vallodolid, ESP
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Kress, Samuel H.
Sulley & Co., Arthur J.

Technical Summary

The paint and ground layers were transferred at an unknown date from a panel that had six vertical members, as is evident from traces of the joins still visible in raking light. The present canvas support has been relined. The type of wood making up the original panel is unknown, though a label affixed to the back of the frame states that it was "transferred from an oaken panel."[1] The painting has a smooth white ground with underdrawing to which the painted design conforms quite precisely.

The painting is in good condition. There are some areas of loss and abrasion, particularly at the edges and along the former joins in the panel, in the blue cloak of the Virgin and the area around her head, especially her veil, and in the right wall of the shed, as well as numerous tiny losses throughout. The old inpainting has discolored in these areas.

[1] The label reads: "PP-A2 - a picture representing The Adoration of the Maggi [sic]. An early painting attributed to the Dutch School, said to be painted not later than 1480. Transferred from an oaken panel. From a convent in Spain. Contini - New York, 4-6-1927. $EM, NxN."

Bibliography

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 184, no. 81, repro., as by Hispano-Dutch Master.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 319, repro., as by Hispano-Dutch Master.

1960: Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, color repro., as by Hispano-Dutch Master.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 67, as Hispano-Dutch School.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 59, repro., as Hispano-Dutch School.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 174, repro., as Hispano-Dutch School.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 64-66, fig. 59, as The Epiphany by Master of the Kress Epiphany.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 125, no. 109, color repro., as by Hispano-Dutch School.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 293, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 213-215, repro. 215.

2021: Radermecker, Anne-Sophie V. Anonymous Art at Auction: The Reception of Early Flemish Paintings in the Western Art Market (1946-2015). Leiden, 2021: xv, 218 color fig. 22.