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Description: | This elaborate Adoration of the Magi is painted in what is broadly known as the Antwerp Mannerist style, a term coined by art historians to give some coherence to the work of several artists who seem to carry elements of the late Gothic well into the period of the High Renaissance when elements of contemporary Italian art were reaching Flanders. Decorative invention is the keynote, combining with extravagantly gesturing figure groupings, flamboyant costumes, sophisticated but rather metallic colour effects, technical virtuosity and fantastical architecture freely combining Gothic and Renaissance elements. Collaboration and mass production appear to have been common, as well as a wide range of quality. The Adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2, 1-12) was one of the most popular subjects of this school, perhaps influenced by their proximity to Cologne Cathedral and its Three Kings Shrine. Historically the Magi were astrologers of the Persian Court, but in the later middle ages the Magi, redefined as Kings, came to personify the three parts of the known world: Europe, Africa and Asia. Much of the detail has symbolic meaning in Christian iconography; for instance the ruined structure in which the Holy Family receives the Magi, so unlike a stable, alludes to the passing of the Judaic Dispensation with the birth of Christ. Several precedents for these figures and this composition exist including: Adoration of the Kings, (Dessan, Artmalst Galerie); all the figures are very close to those in the Rochdale painting. One must have been painted with the knowledge of the other or both rely upon a common source. They may conceivably be by the same hand or from the same workshop. Another very similar work, by the Master of Antwerp (sold at Lempertz, 12 November 1963) probably predates both of the above works. | Subjects: | religion (Adoration of the Magi) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Flemish (Antwerp) School Æ Attributed to Previously attributed to Eyck, Jan van (Netherlandish painter, ca.1390-1441) | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8374... | Go to resource |
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