Adoration of the Magi (Triptych)

Hugo van der Goes's Adoration of the Magi triptych, painted around 1460 and now in the Hermitage Museum, is an early work by one of the greatest and most enigmatic painters of the fifteenth-century Netherlands. Van der Goes, who would later paint the revolutionary Portinari Altarpiece, already shows in this early work the monumental scale, emotional intensity, and innovative spatial arrangements that would make him the most influential Ghent painter of his generation.

Even in this early triptych, Van der Goes's distinctive approach is evident in the monumental figural scale, the rich atmospheric depth, and the emotional gravitas that distinguishes his work from the more placid devotional paintings of his contemporaries.