Skip to main content

Jan Brueghel the Elder, 'The Adoration of the Kings', 1598

About the work

Overview

Jan Brueghel seems to have squeezed a whole world into his tiny picture. A crowd waits patiently for a turn to come closer to the little child on his mother’s knee. The baby is bare, to show us that he’s a real human baby, but the silvery arrow of light tells us something more.

The old man kneeling is a king. He wears no crown and neither do the kings on either side of him. It’s the child that wears the true crown – a delicate halo that would outshine any earthly crown, for it announces him as the Son of God.

Brueghel’s delicate picture was painted in body colour (watercolour which is mixed with white pigment to make it opaque) on vellum and was made to be handled. It was a talking point but also a reminder of a great religious event. Its owner would have enjoyed the strange mixture of beauty and ugliness that the artist often put into his pictures, bringing everyday people into incidents of great significance.

Key facts

Details

Full title
The Adoration of the Kings
Artist dates
1568 - 1625
Date made
1598
Medium and support
bodycolour on parchment
Dimensions
32.9 × 48 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit
Presented by Alfred A. de Pass, 1920
Inventory number
NG3547
Location
Room 27
Collection
Main Collection
Frame
17th-century Flemish Frame

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images