Adoration of the Magi (Bosch, Philadelphia)

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Adoration of the Magi (Bosch, Philadelphia)

An oil painting on a wood panel attributed to the workshop of Hieronymus Bosch, created around 1499. It is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum dates it to about 1518, as finished by Bosch’s workshop, while dendrochronology suggests a date between 1493 and 1499. The scene is a traditional Adoration: Mary stands at left under a small hut, while the three Magi bring their gifts to the infant Jesus. Balthazar kneels with his crown lying on the ground, while the other two Magi converse. In the background, Joseph scratches his head, a wide-angle table, the ox and donkey behind the hut, and two armed men with arrows. Hungarian art historian Charles de Tolnay saw archaic elements as drawing on a Utrecht Missal miniature (1425–1430), such as the cracked wooden pillar of the hut and the manna represented in Gaspar’s sleeve. The composition is similar to Bosch’s Adoration of the Magi in New York, though reversed.