The Adoration of the Kings

Around the year 1500 in the Netherlands, Hieronymus Bosch was something like a brand. His crowded, strange religious scenes were so admired that copies and imitations of them poured out for decades — some from his own workshop, some from followers who studied his panels closely. This triptych is one of those echoes. Its central scene, the three kings arriving to kneel before the Christ child, repeats almost point for point a Bosch Adoration now in the Prado in Madrid. Whether Bosch's own hand ever touched this version is still unsettled: the house that owns it lists it as his work, while other specialists file it under 'follower of Bosch,' a skilled copyist rather than the master. It is painted on oak, with two hinged wings that fold shut over the centre — and when they close, the outside shows Christ standing before Pilate, waiting to be judged.