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Title

The Adoration of the Magi

painter

Flandes, Juan de (Posible procedencia de los Países Bajos, ca. 1465 - Palencia, ca. 1519)

Generic classification
Painting
Object
Painting
Date
1508-1519
Century
First half of the 16th c.
Cultural context / style
Flemish
Dimensions
49 5/8 x 32 5/16 in.
Material
Panel
Technique
Oil Painting
Iconography / Theme
Adoración de los Reyes Magos
Provenance
Church of San Lázaro in Palencia (Palencia, Spain)
Current location
The National Gallery of Art, Washington (Washington, United States)
Inventory Number in Current Collection
1961.9.22-25
Object history

This is one of the paintings that come from the old altarpiece of the church of San Lázaro in Palencia. It was commissioned to Juan de Flandes by Sancho de Castilla, who was Prince Don Juan's ayo, to decorate the chapel where he would be buried. In the 18th century, the altarpiece was very deteriorated and it was replaced by another one where some of the panels by Juan de Flandes were included. Unfortunaterly, this one of the Adoration of the Kings was not among them. In 1952, it appeared in the Frederick Mont Gallery in New York, with the rest of the paintings belonged to the same altarpiece. On February 11, 1953, it was acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation of New York, and given to the National Gallery of Washington in 1961.

Description

Juan de Flandes arranged the Epiphany scene in a simple and clear way. He reduces the characters to the Virgin with the Child in her arms and the three kings who occupy the entire foreground. Melchior kneeling at the Virgin's feet opens the golden chest to show the child his gift. Gaspar and Balthasar on the right, behind Melchior, involve the viewer in the scene by looking at them and pointing out the star that has guided them to Bethlehem, which shines high above the architectural ruins that close the scene behind the Virgin. The soft, transparent tones of Juan de Flandes' style emphasize here the main characters in the foreground.

This panel was part of a larger ensemble of which there is no certainty as to the number of paintings or where they would be displayed. In addition to the other three that are preserved in the National Gallery of Washington of the same set (Annunciation, Nativity and Baptism of Christ), the Resurrection of Christ preserved in the Soumaya Museum in Mexico, and the four in the Museo Nacional del Prado with the themes of the Resurrection of Lazarus, Prayer in the Garden, Ascension of Christ and Pentecost were also part of the same altarpiece.

It was in 1508 when Sancho de Castilla, who was the ayo of Prince Don Juan, granted permission to use the chapel of the choir of the church of San Lázaro de Palencia for his burial place (Vandevivere, 1967).  This documentation leads Vandevivere to think that this is the date when the pictorial altarpiece was contracted with Juan de Flandes. For Silva, the commission to Juan de Flandes must have been later than 1509, that year  the painter was still working in the cathedral of Palencia, and he places the paintings around 1514-1519 (Silva 2006).

* The relative location of dealers, antique shops, art galleries, and collectors leads us to the places where they were based or had one of their main headquarters. However, this does not always indicate that every artwork that passed through their hands was physically located there. In the case of antique dealers and art merchants, their business often extended across multiple territories; sometimes they would purchase items at their origin and send them directly to clients. Similarly, some collectors owned multiple residences, sometimes in different countries, where they housed their collections. It is often difficult to determine exactly where a specific piece was kept during its time in their possession. Consequently, the main location of the dealer or collector is indicated. These factors should be considered when interpreting the map. Refer to the object's history in each case.
Bibliography
  • (1959): Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, p. 266.
  • BERMEJO, Elisa (1962): Juan de Flandes, Instituto Diego Velázquez, del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, pp. 28-31.
  • BRANS, Jan V. L. (1953): "Juan de Flandes, pintor de la Reina y de Castilla", vol. 4, nº 21, Clavileño, pp. 29-32.
  • DE COO, Josef y REYNAUD, Nicole (1979): "Origen del retablo de San Juan Bautista atribuido a Juan de Flandes", nº 52, Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia, pp. 140-141.
  • EISLER, Colin (1977): Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Phaidon Press Ltd, Oxford, pp. 187-188.
  • GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, p. 148.
  • HAND, John Oliver (2004): National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington and New York, p. 59.
  • Hand, John Oliver y Wolff, Martha (1986): Early Netherlandish Painting. The Colletions of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, pp. 125-133.
  • JUSTI, Carl (1887): "Juan de Flandes, ein niederländischer Hofmaler Isabella der Katholischen", Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, p. 167.
  • JUSTI, Carl (1908): Miscellaneen aus drei Jahrhunderten spanischen Kunstlebens, vol. 1, Grote, Berlín, p. 324.
  • LURIE, Ann Tzeutschler (1976): "Birth and Naming of St. John the Baptist Attributed to Juan de Flandes: A Newly Discovered Panel from a Hypothetical Altarpiece", nº 63, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, p. 127.
  • MARTÍNEZ RUIZ, María José (2021): "Arcadio Torres Martín y sus negocios al servicio del tráfico de obras de arte desde España a Estados Unidos", nº 374, Archivo Español de Arte, p. 148.
  • MAYER, August L. (1909): "Studien zur Quattrocento-malerei in Nordwestkastilien", nº 32, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, p. 519.
  • POST, Chandler Rathfon (1958): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 12 (The Catalan School in the Early Renaissance), nº 2, Harvard University Press, Cambdrige (Massachusetts), pp. 615, 618, 620, 622.
  • POST, Chandler Rathfon (1933): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 4, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), pp. 45-50.
  • SILVA MAROTO, Pilar (2006): Juan de Flandes, Caja Duero, Salamanca, pp. 424-427.
  • VAN PUYVELDE, Leo (1962): La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel, Elsevier, París, p. 353.
  • VANDEVIVERE, Ignace (1967): La cathèdrale de Palencia et l'église paroissiale de Cervera de Pisuerga, Centre National de Recherches Primitifs Flamands, Bruselas, p. 45.
  • WENIGER, Matthias (2011): Sittow, Morros, Juan de Flandes. Drei Maler Aus Dem Norden Am Hof Isabellas von Kastilien, Ludwig, Kiel, pp. 250-254.
Citation:

Ana Diéguez Rodríguez, "The Adoration of the Magi" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/3

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