The Adoration of the Magi

Adoration of the Magi, this version attributed to Dürer's tradition or circle, belongs to the devotional subject that Dürer treated in multiple media across his career — the altarpiece panel, the print, and the drawing. The Three Kings presenting their gifts to the Christ child was the occasion for his most famous early altarpiece (the Uffizi Adoration of 1504), and later treatments in his workshop continued to exploit the subject's opportunities for elaborate costume, exotic figures, and the contrast between the magnificence of the kings and the poverty of the stable. The combination of precise observation and narrative drama that the subject demanded was ideally suited to Dürer's pictorial intelligence.

The Baroque-era execution shows a looser handling and warmer tonality that differs from Dürer's precise Renaissance technique, reflecting the tastes and methods of the mid-17th century copyist.