Adoration of the Magi

about 1519

Jan van Scorel
Netherlandish, 1495-1562

One of Jan van Scorel’s earliest known works, this image of three kings from distant lands paying tribute to the newborn Jesus incorporates elements of northern and southern European visual traditions. The refined landscape, intricate costumes, and individualized faces of the figures attest to lessons the artist likely learned from his Netherlandish predecessors. The elaborate architectural carvings, on the other hand, recall ancient Roman wall decoration. Van Scorel likely made this work while traveling to study in Italy: the panel on which it is painted is made of fir, a wood rarely used in the Low Countries but one he might have encountered on his way across the Alps. Van Scorel was praised by the first biographer of Netherlandish artists as the “lantern bearer” who brought the Italian Renaissance style back to Northern Europe.

Status: On View, Gallery 207
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jan van Scorel
Title: Adoration of the Magi
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1515–1525
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 44.4 × 55.2 cm (17 1/2 × 21 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Wilson L. Mead Fund
Reference Number: 1935.381
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/21937/manifest.json

Max J. Friedländer, review of Kurt Steinbart, Die Tafelgemälde des Jakob Cornelisz van Amsterdam, in Kunstchronik und Kunstmarkt 31/32 (1923), pp. 605–06.
H. W. Hupp, “Jubiläumsausstellung des Kunstvereins für die Rheinlande und Westfalen: Alte Malerei aus Privatbesitz,” Pantheon 4 (1929), p. 340.
Kurt Steinbart, “Nachlese im Werke des Jacob Cornelisz,” Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 5 (1929), pp. 234–36, 257, fig. 48.
Walter Cohen, “Die Madonna mit musizierenden Engeln von Jakob Cornelisz und einige andere Gemälde des Meisters,” Pantheon 5 (1930), pp. 106, 108 (ill.).
Max J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, vol. 12, Berlin and Leiden, 1935, pp. 110, 195, no. 256, pl. 52; rev. English ed., Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 12, Brussels and Leiden, 1975, pp. 59, 116, no. 256, pl. 143.
G. J. Hoogewerff, De Noord-Nederlandsche Schilderkunst, vol. 3, The Hague, 1939, pp. 119–20.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 85.
Molly A. Faries, “Jan van Scorel, His Style and Its Historical Context,” Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1972, pp. 47–48 n. 26.
Maryan Wynn Ainsworth and Molly Faries, “Northern Renaissance Paintings: The Discovery of Invention,” Bulletin of the Saint Louis Art Museum 18, 1 (1986), p. 17, fig. 24 (detail).
Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America, Washington, D.C., and Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 49.
Jane L. Carroll, “The Paintings of Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen (1472–1533),” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1987 (Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms, 1988), pp. 398–400, cat. A1, fig. 97.
Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy, Chicago, 1993, pp. 30–31, 39 (ill.).
Molly Faries and Martha Wolff, “Landscape in the Early Paintings of Jan van Scorel,” Burl. Mag. 138 (1996), pp. 728–731, 733, fig. 13.
Molly Faries, “Another New Early Jan van Scorel,” in Polyptiek: Een veelluik van Groninger bijdragen aan de kunstgeschiedenis, ed. Henk Th. van Veen et al., Zwolle, 2002, pp. 42, 46–47, 221–22.
Molly Faries, “Technical Studies in Early Netherlandish Painting: A Critical Overview of Recent Developments,” in Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting: Methodology, Limitations, Perspectives, ed. Molly Faries and Ron Spronk, Cambridge, Mass., and Turnhout, 2003, p. 16.

Düsseldorf, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Alte Malerei aus Privatbesitz, 1929, cat. 18.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Christmas Story in Art, 1938–39, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Glad Tidings of Great Joy, 1994–95, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, On the Road to Italy: Early Paintings by Dutch Renaissance Master Jan van Scorel, 1998, no cat.

Probably a member of the Khuen von Belasy family [based on the coats of arms formerly on the picture]. Von Ferstel collection, Vienna, until 1920 [according to Friedländer 1923, p. 606]. Camillo Castiglioni, Vienna, from 1920; sold, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, November 17–20, 1925, no. 47. Dr. Tietje, Amsterdam, by 1929 [lent by him to 1929 exhibition]. Paul Cassirer and Co., Amsterdam; sold to the Art Institute, 1935.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.