Adoration of the Magi before the stable on the hill

Hugo van der Goes created this Adoration of the Magi before the stable on the hill around 1490. Van der Goes was one of the greatest Netherlandish painters, whose Portinari Altarpiece sent to Florence had a profound impact on Italian art. His dramatic compositions and psychologically intense figures represent the pinnacle of late fifteenth-century Netherlandish painting. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique.

Oil on panel with Van der Goes's characteristic psychological depth and dramatic figure arrangement. The hilltop stable setting creates an unusual spatial composition for the Epiphany scene.