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Adoration of the Magi (Vienna)

Adoration of the Magi (Vienna)

Object type Painting
Genre Religious
Date 1598
Dimensions 33 x 48 cm
Support Copper
Medium Oil
Signature BRUEGHEL 1598
Our attribution Jan Brueghel the Elder
Other authorities Ertz 2008-10, #225
Ertz 1979, #49
Location Vienna, Austria
Collection Kunsthistorisches Museum
Accession numbers inv. #617
Tags Resting, Horse, Bridge, House, Pieter Bruegel, River, Burghers, Children, Soldiers, Christ, New Testament, Virgin Mary
External resources Kunsthistorisches Museum
Thiéry 1953, p. 175
Ertz 1979, cat. #49, fig. 507
Essen 1997
Ertz 2008-10, cat. #225
Brussels 1980, cat. #120
1806 Vienna Purchased by Kunsthistorisches Museum
E.A. Honig
January 23, 2015

The general disposition of the composition has been linked to the Brussels watercolor Adoration of the Magi sometimes attributed to Pieter the Elder. However, I do not find this connection particularly close. Not a single direct citation can be found between that painting and Jan’s versions of the subject, in marked distinction to the way he handles the revision of other major compositions by his father.

E.A. Honig
July 31, 2012

Copy formerly Dresden, Gemaldegalerie, 1930 cat. #900 (panel, 45 x 64.5). Copy formerly art market, Vienna (Hassfurther (?) 1993), canvas, 76 x 110.

E.A. Honig
June 8, 2012

Sources for this composition and its figures include Bosch's Prado Ephphany Altarpiece, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's London and Brussels Adorations, and a drawing by Pieter now in Dresden.