The Adoration of the Kings

This anonymous master was active from 1470 to 1500 in Delft and presumably also in Gouda. The influence of Justus van Gent and Hugo van der Goes suggests that he probably spent a short time in the southern strikingly individual artists of his time in the northern Netherlands. The Adoration of the Kings is a typical work by this master, distinguished by its delicate, finely balanced colouring and lively use of line. The figures are unmistakable: apparently fragile, with dainty, somewhat theatrical gestures. The design of the faces is highly individual. They look ill and exhausted, with sunken cheeks, high foreheads and receding hair. The inner tension of profound religious feeling seems to have seized the figures and made its mark on their outward appearance.| Prestel Museum Guides – Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2017