Adoration of the Magi

Description "Wise men from the East," in the Gospel of Matthew's account of Christ's birth, saw a new star and, believing it to be a divine omen, came to honor the one marked for future greatness. Whether extraordinary appearances must be divinely ordained or could be random was a "hot" question in the 1600s. By the Renaissance, the youngest wise man had come to be depicted as an African. Pieter Coecke traveled to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in 1533 to work for the Turkish sultan. From this experience, he knew how to depict Near Easterners and Africans accurately.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/08/1938	Treatment	repaired
1/06/1941	Treatment	coated; cleaned; loss compensation
9/01/1957	Treatment	coated; cleaned; loss compensation; repaired
10/26/1957	Examination	examined for condition
12/08/1969	Treatment	coated; loss compensation; other
12/31/1969	Treatment	loss compensation
9/14/1984	Examination	examined for condition
9/01/1985	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation
9/17/1985	Treatment	loss compensation; cleaned; coated; re-housed; other
2/01/1987	Treatment	coated; loss compensation; repaired
11/01/1996	Treatment	loss compensation
3/09/2011	Examination	examined for condition

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Inscription] On frame notes that this piece was commissioned by Elisabeth van Langenhove

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters