The Adoration of the Magi

Artist Master of the Vision of St. John (German, active ca.1450-1460)

Place of OriginGermany

Dateabout 1460

DimensionsPainting: 51 × 28 in. (129.5 × 71.1 cm)
Frame: 58 × 35 × 3 1/8 in. (147.3 × 88.9 × 7.9 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1936.80

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 19

Label TextShown as Renaissance kings, the three Magi (“wise men”) wear sumptuous fur-trimmed brocades, pearl-embroidered cloaks, and jeweled gold crowns. The Magi, three eastern kings, traveled to Bethlehem to honor the infant Christ with gifts. The story was often interpreted during the Renaissance as earthly governments (the Magi) recognizing the authority of the Church (Jesus). The artist, whose name is unknown, probably worked in Cologne, Germany, in the mid-1400s. Like many other Northern European artists, he was fond of minutely observed details—the texture of fur and cloth, the wrinkles of skin, the depiction of specific plants, and the way light hits surfaces. While the faces of the Magi and of Joseph, seated behind his wife, are individual and even portrait-like, Mary’s heavy-lidded eyes, straight nose, and high forehead conform to conceptions of ideal beauty of the time.Published ReferencesFischer, O., "Ein Kolner Meister um 1450-60," Pantheon, IX, Oct. 1936, pp. 318-22, repr. p. 319.

Godwin, Blake-More, Catalogue of European Paintings, Toledo, 1976.

Stange, A., Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Munich, 1952, V, pp. 14, 15, fig. 15.

"Painting in Northern Europe 1450-1550," Toledo Musuem of Art Museum News, vol. 13, no. 2, Summer 1970, p. 29, repr.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "European Jeweled Arts," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 13, no. 3, Autumn 1970, p. 51, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 108-09, pl. 62.

Farmer, John David, "Gerard David's Lamentation and an Anonymous St. Jerome," Museum Studies (Art Institute of Chicago), 8, pp. 53, 55, 56.

Schulze, Franz, "A Mission of Discovery," Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, Apr. 1977, p. 66.

Borghero, Gertrude, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Catalogue of the Exhibited Works of Art, Castagnola, 1981, p. 197.

Exhibition HistoryColumbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, 1944.