The Adoration of the Magi

Geertgen tot Sint Jans worked in Haarlem in the northern Netherlands and died young, probably before he was 30, so very little survives from his hand. This Adoration comes from around 1480. It shows the three kings who followed the star to Bethlehem, and painters of the age used them to picture the whole known world bowing to the newborn Christ. One is old, one middle-aged, one young, standing for the three ages of a human life, and one is African, standing for a third continent beyond Europe and Asia. The eldest, Melchior, kneels in front and has set his crown on the ground, spilling gold coins before the child. Look past the front figures and you can see the same kings again, tiny in the distance, still riding in with their long train of followers.