The Adoration of the Magi

In 1520 the small town of Wittenberg was at the centre of a storm. Its most famous professor, Martin Luther, had just been threatened with excommunication, and the questions he raised would soon divide the Church. The busiest painter in town, Lucas Cranach the Elder, was Luther's friend and would spread his portrait across Europe. Even so, Cranach's large workshop kept producing traditional devotional pictures like this one. The three kings, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, kneel with their gifts before the Christ Child on Mary's lap. It is a workshop piece rather than the master's own hand, painted in oil on a panel barely the size of a book.