Adoration of the Magi

Artist: Hugo van der Goes – c. 15th century

This composition, in which half-length figures of the three magi are viewed behind a fictive arcade, offering their gifts to the Christ Child—an event celebrated in the Church as the Feast of Epiphany conforms to the rising popularity in the Netherlands for close-up devotional paintings that put the viewer in a direct relationship with the event depicted. On the ledge separating the viewer from the sacred figures is placed a receptacle with gold coins—the gift of the oldest king (or magus).