The Adoration of the Magi, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4): Art, History and Details

The Adoration of the Magi, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this Nativity scene, familiar in Christian contexts, Mary and Joseph present the infant Jesus to the three Magi, who have placed their crowns on the ground in homage to the King of Kings. The three Magi are portrayed in Portuguese costumes to indicate to a Mughal audience that they are foreigners who believed in Christ. The artist cleverly and humorously indicates that the Magi have just arrived in Bethlehem by depicting their three camels in the bottom corner. One exhausted camel’s tongue hangs out the side of his mouth, while the other two animals lean eagerly toward a pair of water jugs.

Object facts

• Title: The Adoration of the Magi, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
• Date: 1602–4
• Culture: Northern India, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, Mughal period
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.3 x 15.6 cm (10 3/8 x 6 1/8 in.); Image: 22.7 x 12.2 cm (8 15/16 x 4 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.145.36.b

A detail from the museum

The books next to newborn Jesus indicate that his birth fulfills a prophecy.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Arts of the Islamic World: Including 20th Century Middle Eastern Painting. London: Sotheby's, 2001.
• Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
• Benay, Erin E. Italy by Way of India: Translating Art and Devotion in the Early Modern World. Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2021.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.