PIETER COECKE VAN AELST THE ELDER AND WORKSHOP | TRIPTYCH WITH THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

With Johnny van Haeften, London;

From whom acquired 19 May 2005.

Pieter Coecke van Aelst was the leading figure of the early-sixteenth century movement that has come to be known as Antwerp Mannerism and this is a typical example of his lavish style of painting. Probably the single most popular subject for panel painters in Antwerp during this period, the Adoration of the Magi permitted the artist to show off his skills in the depiction of exotic fabrics, jewellery, and precious objects. The Magi themselves, as Dan Ewing has convincingly argued, may have had a special significance for rich Antwerp merchant traders of the period, their dazzling gifts from foreign lands symbolising the importance of foreign trade to this new and important group of art patrons.¹ The present painting is closely related to a version that also features the Christ child blessing the Magi, and is now in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Alava, Vitora, Spain.² In the Vitoria painting as here, the two Magi on the lateral wings have removed their hats, while the magus kneeling before Christ wears a gold embroidered robe and his hat hangs at his shoulders. Both versions also include a canopy over the Virgin and a stone table in the foreground laid with gold cup and scepter.

1. See D. Ewing, "An Antwerp Triptych: Three Examples of the Artistic and Economic Impact of the Early Antwerp Art Market," in Antwerp: Artworks and Audiences, Northampton 1994; and D. Ewing, Magi and Merchants: Civic Iconography and Local Culture in Antwerp Adorations, 1505–1609, Mobile 2002.

2. See G. Marlier, La Renaissance flamande Piere Coeck d'Alost, Brussels 1966, p. 157, fig. 92.