The Adoration of the Magi

Artist Fernando Gallego (Spanish, active 1468-1507)

Place of OriginSpain

Dateabout 1480-1490

DimensionsPainting: 50 × 40 1/2 in. (127 × 102.9 cm)
Frame: 57 × 48 × 4 in. (144.8 × 121.9 × 10.2 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

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

Object number

1940.173

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 15

Label TextIf you look closely at the landscape at the top left, you can see the three wise Eastern kings (Magi) having stopped to bathe on their journey to find a newborn king. Above the castle, a vision of the Virgin Mary holding her child Jesus Christ appears in a shining circle of light, telling the bathing Magi where to find the king they seek—the Christ child himself. In the foreground, they have found the child and present their gifts. This version of the story derives from The Golden Legend, a popular medieval book of saints' lives, written between 1260 and 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine. Only a handful of other known images of the Adoration of the Magi include the unusual detail of the vision.Published ReferencesPost, C. R., A History of Spanish Painting, Cambridge, Mass., 1933, IV (I), p. 136, fig. 31.

Sanchez Canton, F., Los grandes temas del arte cristiano en Espana, I: Nacimiento e infancia de Cristo, Madrid, 1948, p. 126.

Rousseau, T., Jr., "A Flemish Altarpiece from Spain," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, IX, June 1951, p. 275.

Gaya Nuno, J., La pintura espanola fuera de Espana, Madrid, 1958, no. 798.

Gaya Nuno, J., Fernando Gallego, Madrid, 1958, pp. 19, 37, pl. 26.

Gudiol, J., The Arts of Spain, New York, 1964, fig. 92.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 61-62, pl. 49.

El arte en Cataluna y los reinos hispanos en tiempos de Carlos I, Barcelona, 2000, p. 280.

Fernando Gallego (c. 1440-1507), Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2004, pp. 168, 189.

Silva Maroto, Pilar, Fernando Gallego, Salamanca, Caja Duero, 2004, pp. 210-214, 414 n.31 & 32, repr. pp. 211, 213 (det.).

Dotseth, Amanda W., Barbara C. Anderson, and Mark A. Reglán, eds., Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: From the Altarpiece from Cuidad Rodrigo: Paintings from the Collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, London, Philip Wilson, 2008, p. 55, Fig. 10, p. 57 (col.).

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Spanish Painting, 1941, no. 25, p. 38, figs. 25, 26 (cat. by J. Gudiol).

Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL. 1952.

Barcelona, Exposición Universal, Album de la instalación artistica-arqueológica de la Real Casa...con un catalogo razonado, 1888, p. 109, pl. 8.