"Adoration of the Magi"
Flemish Master of the 17th Century
School of Pieter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640)
Oil on canvas
Lacquered and silvered frame
Canvas dimensions 100 x 75 cm
Frame dimensions 113 x 87 cm
Excellent condition
The episode of the Adoration of the Child by the Magi is considered the most joyful moment in the life of Christ and has been depicted with particularly fascinating works by all the great Masters of ancient painting.
From Southern Italy, with the famous Neapolitan compositions, to Northern Europe with the splendid Flemish scenes, the subject was among the favorites and lent itself to highlighting the pictorial skills and descriptive imagination of the Authors who competed with each other creating exciting and pathos-filled scenographies.
Among the greatest Nordic interpreters of this theme, the genius of Peter Paul Rubens certainly stood out, who depicted the magical event with magnificent and highly inspired canvases, which ranged from an intimate image of the scene to representations of unsurpassed theatricality.
The canvas in question takes up the compositional structure of one of the most famous, now exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, and which his prolific workshop reproduced in various versions and in multiple formats.
Our version, although inverted, reproduces all the particularities present in Rubens' painting.
In particular, it presents the image, considered sacrilegious at the time, of the Child held by the Mother while tenderly caressing the bald head of Melchior, the oldest of the three Magi, depicted according to tradition kneeling and without a crown. The King kisses the Newborn's little foot with devotion and offers a golden cup as a gift.
In the foreground stands the imposing figure of Gaspar, with a long beard and Oriental headdress, wearing a long and sumptuous red cloak supported at the end by a young page. His gift is a box full of incense.
Behind him is the black King Balthazar, with a splendid pink velvet cloak and a white turban on his head. A small black servant next to him holds a cup with myrrh. Another analogy with Rubens' painting is evident in the vigorous figures of the two horses that can be seen behind the group of Moors and which have the particular morphological characteristics prerogative of the great Master.
The scene takes place at dusk in the evening and the protagonists are irradiated by a magical light that illuminates the faces and clothes with bright colors.
The author imprints a chiaroscuro game of considerable intensity, managing to create an atmosphere of great effect.
All photographic details of the work click on the link:
https://www.antichitaischia.it/it/prodotto/-adorazione-dei-magi--maestro-fiammingo-del--600
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