Title

The Adoration of the Magi

painter

Maestro de los Reyes Católicos [attributed to] (Active in Castile in the late 15th century)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This panel is one of a set of seven or eight panels depicting episodes from the life of Christ from the Annunciation to the Wedding at Cana. In view of the size of the surviving panels and their iconographic concentration on the initial moments of Christ's life (which suggests that panels from his public life, passion and resurrection are missing), the set, unless it was limited to the Joys of the Virgin, must have belonged to a large altarpiece comparable to other large Castilian Late Gothic altarpieces such as those from the cathedrals of Zamora and Ciudad Rodrigo.
According to the tradition of the international art market, the ensemble comes from a monastery in the city of Valladolid. In general, art market reports are very unreliable and we have no certain information about the presence of these panels in any monastery in Valladolid (which, moreover, could only have been a first-rate monastery capable of housing an altarpiece of this size and quality and with connections to the royal family). Nonetheless, Post considered this information to be plausible due to the connections he noted between these paintings and other works from Valladolid and the nearby schools of Palencia and Burgos and the aforementioned connections with the royal family, This is evident in the heraldic emblems that seem to allude to the alliance between the Castile of the Catholic Monarchs and the house of Habsburg of the king of Romans and future emperor Maximilian I, which was sealed by marriages in 1496 (Princess Juana with Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy) and 1497 (Prince of Asturias Juan with Margaret of Austria): This is why this altarpiece is often referred to as the ‘altarpiece of the Catholic Monarchs’ (usually mistakenly in English ‘of the Catholic Kings’), although in reality its provenance and, in relation to this, its commission are unknown.
Despite Post clearly speaks of eight panels, we only have certain evidence for seven: the fact that one of them, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, has been erroneously cited and sometimes reproduced as the Circumcision may have caused the confusion. Although today they are spread across five American museums, we can assume a common material history for them up to the 1930s. Starting from their supposed origin in Valladolid, in the early 20th century at least the Wedding at Cana was owned by the Count of Las Almenas, José María de Palacio y Abárzuza, as it is shown in a photograph of his house by Arthur Byne published in Spanish Interiors and Furniture. The records of its present owners indicate the same location for Christ among the Doctors (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and, as a hypothesis, for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA), but the fact is that only the Wedding at Cana is shown in the photograph.
The next milestone in their material history places the panels in the London art market, where Mayer's captions locate the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Wedding at Cana. The Denver Art Museum records state that the Adoration of the Magi belonging to its collections was in the hands of Lionel Harris's Spanish Art Gallery, while the National Gallery of Art records state that Christ among the Doctors and the Wedding at Cana were purchased by Frank Partridge and Sons on 28 March 1919.
The next milestone in its material history, recorded by Post in his A History of Spanish Painting, locates the panels in the art market and collections of the United States. On 10 May 1925 the New York firm French & Co. acquired the Adoration of the Magi and, in its turn, sold it to John North Willys on 17 March 1930. The other three panels in the John North Willys collection in Palm Beach (Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity of Christ) may well have followed the same route. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which was sold to the Fogg Museum in 1933, also passed through the hands of French & Co. The French & Co. ownership is not recorded for Christ among the Doctors and the Wedding at Cana, cited by Post in 1933 as belonging to the collection of Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite in New York. However, the fact that their subsequent sale was apparently mediated by French & Co. (as was the case with the panels in the Willys collection) suggests that they may have passed through their hands.
The next and final milestone in the material history of the panels is their transfer to public collections in the United States. We have already seen how French & Co. sold the Presentation of Christ in the Temple directly to the Fogg Museum in 1933. The two Satterwhite panels (Christ among the Doctors and the Wedding at Cana) were sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1941 (during the lifetime of their owner), apparently through the mediation of French & Co. As for the four Willys panels (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity of Christ and Adoration of the Magi), they were not included in the sale of his collection promoted by his widow at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York on 25 October 1945 but were instead sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 23 October 1951 with the mediation of French & Co. As the owner of six of the seven panels, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation donated them to various institutions: in 1952 the two Satterwhite panels were donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and in 1961 the four Willys panels were donated, two to the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (Annunciation and Nativity of Christ), which exhibits them in the California Palace of the Legion of Honour, one to the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Visitation), and one to the Denver Art Museum (Adoration of the Magi).

Description

The painting exhibits typical features of Flemish painting, such as the meticulous detail in the figures, the costumes, and the treatment of the landscape. In the foreground, two of the Magi are depicted offering their gifts to the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus. In the background, a third Magus holds a glass-covered cup to offer it to the newborn Child. Numerous attendants can be seen in the distance as part of the procession. The craftsmanship of the ornate objects they carry, as well as the jewellery they wear, is remarkably detailed.

According to José Gudiol, only the main figures in this panel are the work of the Master of the Catholic Monarchs (whom he identifies as Diego de la Cruz, a suggestion that has now been superseded), while the rest are the work of a collaborator for whom he suggests a possible French origin.

Locations

• XV^th c.

  province

  Possible origin in the province of Valladolid, Valladolid (Spain)

• ca. 1920 - 1925

  dealer/antiquarian

  The Spanish Art Gallery, London, London (United Kingdom) *

• 1925 - 1930

  dealer/antiquarian

  French & Company, New York (United States) *

• 1930 - Mid XX^th c.

  private collection

  John North Willys, New York (United States) *

• Mid XX^th c.

  dealer/antiquarian

  French & Company, New York (United States) *

• 1951 - 1961

  private collection

  Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York (United States) *

• 1961 - present

  museum

  Denver Art Museum, Denver (United States)