Detail of The Adoration of the Magi by Bosch in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

The Adoration of the Magi

Artist: Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish, ’s Hertogenbosch ca. 1450–1516 ’s Hertogenbosch)

Date: ca. 1470–75

Medium: Oil and gold on wood

Dimensions: 28 x 22 1/4 in. (71.1 x 56.5 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913

Accession Number: 13.26

Label:

Technical examination of numerous works by Hieronymus Bosch has allowed for the reconsideration of his oeuvre. Long thought to be a later pastiche, this panel can now be placed among Bosch's earliest autograph works. The salient features of its underdrawing, the tunnel-like perspective, and certain of the rather wooden figure types with sensitively rendered faces are closely related to other early paintings by the master.

The stage-like setting of the scene with a curtain held aloft by angels might indicate that the composition was influenced by religious plays, which were performed in Bosch’s hometown of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/435724