Retablo with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin-The Adoration of the Magi & The Presentation in the Temple

Pere Espallargues was an Aragonese painter active in the 1480s–1500s who produced retablos — the elaborate multi-panel altarpieces unique to the Iberian tradition — for parish churches across Catalonia and Aragon. This retablo combining the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple (c. 1490) continues the Hispano-Flemish synthesis that dominated Spanish painting after contact with Flemish masters through Aragonese trade networks. The Adoration and Presentation were paired because both episodes involve the public recognition of Christ's messianic identity: by the Magi's homage from the East and by Simeon's prophecy in the Temple.

Espallargues works in the Hispano-Flemish manner: oil technique with Flemish attention to textile and physiognomic detail, but arranged within the hierarchical spatial conventions of Spanish retablo design. Figures are placed against architectural settings that combine Flemish pointed arches with Spanish decorative motifs. The Magi's gifts are rendered with the precise material inventory of Northern European painters — elaborate gold vessels, brocaded robes.