The Adoration of the Magi

The general format of this picture is typical of the range of Adorations produced by the Antwerp Mannerist followers of Jan de Beer. Within that group, the present picture follows closest to the types associated with Jan Mertens van Dornicke, the Master of 1518 (Antwerp c. 1470-c. 1527) and his son-in-law, Pieter Coecke van Aelst. The oeuvres of their followers are at times extremely hard to differentiate given the very close stylistic and compositional links of the two masters, but the present work seems closest to types by Coecke (for example that in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, formerly regarded by Friedländer as by the Master of 1518 [i.e. Mertens]) and his followers. Particularly similar in composition to the present picture, and perhaps even by the same hand, is the painting attributed by Marlier (La Renaissance flamande. Pierre Coeck d' Alost, Brussels, 1966, p. 405, no. 10) to the 'Maitre du Musée de l'Assistance Publique a Bruxelles'.