The Adoration of the Kings

Pieter Bruegel the Elder completed this tempera on canvas around 1556. Unlike his usual landscape-format works, this Northern Renaissance scene fills the composition with large figures rather than panoramic views. The three kings present gifts to the Christ child while onlookers crowd around with distinct, sometimes grotesque expressions.

Bruegel borrowed the tight grouping from Italian Mannerists like Parmigianino, but his faces remain firmly Northern in their unflinching realism. The presence of soldiers offers subtle commentary on the Spanish Inquisition then tightening its grip on the Netherlands. Bruegel painted another, more famous version in 1564 (now in London's National Gallery) using oil on panel. This earlier canvas version measures 124 x 169 cm and hangs at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.