Adoration of the Kings

Bernard van Orley|Pieter van Aelst the Younger|Tommaso Vincidor (Tommaso di Andrea)

1525–1535 · Wool, silk, silver, silver-gilt thread (20 warps per inch, 8 per cm.) · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Though small in size, this rich devotional tapestry, woven with virtuoso technique in the priciest of raw materials, embodies the highest end production associated with early sixteenth-century Brussels. Complementing its physical appeal was the caliber of its designer, Bernard van Orley, wo was admired official court painter to both Margaret of Austria and, subsequently, Mary of Hungary. With fleeting movement, gorgeously observed draperies billowing, the three kings launch themselves into this scene, as if having just strode into the tapestry from behind its left and right borders. This is a more dynamic version of a design van Orley also executed in oil on panel in a painting now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Van Orley, or a member of his workshop, also explored this composition in a related and extended scene in The Met’s drawing (2014.100) itself, apparently, a design for a larger tapestry.

Artist

Bernard van Orley|Pieter van Aelst the Younger|Tommaso Vincidor (Tommaso di Andrea)

Date

1525–1535

Medium

Wool, silk, silver, silver-gilt thread (20 warps per inch, 8 per cm.)

Culture

Netherlandish, Brussels

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913