Skip to main content
Back to Exhibitions & Collections
Advanced Search
Antwerp Mannerist, after Jan de Beer (ca. 1475-ca. 1528), Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1520, oil …
Adoration of the Magi
Antwerp Mannerist, after Jan de Beer (ca. 1475-ca. 1528), Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1520, oil on oak panel, 20 x 24 in., THe Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, Bequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde, 1971.2.

Adoration of the Magi

Artist Antwerp Mannerist, after Jan de Beer (1470 - 1528) South Netherlandish
Dateca. 1520
Place of OriginAntwerp, Belgium
MediumOil on oak panel
DimensionsPanel: 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 29 x 25 1/4 in. (73.7 x 64.1 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde
Object number1971.2
On View
Not on view
Collections
  • European Paintings & Sculpture
InscribedLabels on back: --UL of panel back a small pre-printed label "FOGG ART MUSEUM/LOAN" with "T" handwritten in front of the word 'loan' and the number "13335" written below this. "HYDE COLLECTION" is written along the left edge. --Bottom center frame a preprinted red Hyde Collection label with capital letters "HC" in script logo at left and in block caps "THE HYDE COLLECTION" with address. ---Right edge of the panel back has a plain adhesive label with large numbers in marking pen "86-139" which is the number assigned to the painting by the Williamstown Conservation Center when treatment proposal done in 1986, preparatory to the work being lent to Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX.
DescriptionScene of the Adoration of the Magi in an imaginary architectural setting with a large arch at the center back and two partial arches on each side of the central scene. The focus is a seated figure of Mary, in a blue cloak, holding the Christ child on a white drapery. The baby, nearly prone, reaches out towards a kneeling white-haired and bearded magus, who is offering a covered gold cup. This figure (probably Melchior, the figure that represents the West, in this case Europe) wears a heavy red-pink robe with ermine lining and an elaborately-patterned gold damask garment underneath. His red hat with spiked, crown-like gold band is nearby on the marble parquet floor. Behind and to the viewer's right is another magus (probably Caspar who represented the East, in this case the Near East) in an awkward semi-kneeling pose. He raises his hat with his right hand and holds a gold covered cup in his left. His domed hat and tabard are decorated with gold and he wears a green silk cloak/drape. The third magus, in the left foreground, is black (probably Balthasar, representing Africa). He carries a rock crystal vessel with gold mounts in his left hand and holds a red hat in his right. He also wears a yellow turban on his head. His red-pink tabard is worn under a blue silk drape/cloak and over green and yellow vertically-striped stockings and red shoes.

The heavy overpaint along the top 2" of the panel indicates that area may be altered in some way. Many of the Antwerp Adorations were the central element of a devotional triptych and had an architectural frame reflective of the architectural setting within the scene itself; however, in Ewing's analysis of the Philadelphia Museum Von Groote/De Beer group of Antwerp Adorations most closely associated with the Hyde's example, there are nineteen known individual panel paintings and only sixteen triptychs (see Notes).

The present frame was photographed on this painting in an old image in The Hyde's archives and was probably the frame on the panel when purchased by Mrs. Hyde. According to conservation examination, it has been altered and may not be original. The frame is oak with patinated gilding over gesso. It is cove-molded around the sides and top with a flat bevel on the bottom rail. Thin engaged colonettes with a small foliate capital on the left and right continue across the top of the frame in a raised bead the same dimension as the colonette shaft.


Exhibition History"Holy Family through the Ages: A 500 year survey of the creche concept," Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX, Dec. 6, 1986- Jan. 11, 1987.

"Objects of Devotion", Hoopes Galllery, The Hyde Collection, Nov. 30, 2003- Feb. 29, 2004.

Fogg Art Museum Loan label on verso of panel, no title or date provided.ProvenanceE. & A. Milch Company, Inc., New York City, by 1929; purchased by Louis [1866-1934] and Charlotte [1867-1963] Hyde, Glens Falls, New York, December 1929 [1]; by bequest to The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, 1963.

[1] The invoice from Milch, dated December 4, 1929, "#14172 1 Painting School of Antwerp/"Adoration of the Magi" is in the Hyde Archive, document 19.1929.