Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi (c. 1424): Art, History and Details

Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi (c. 1424) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This small winged altarpiece, called a triptych, was undoubtedly made for private use. The donor and his wife are shown in the lower central scene kneeling before the Virgin, her mother Saint Anne, and the Christ Child. Above is the Epiphany with the Three Kings presenting gifts to a tightly swaddled Christ.

Object facts

• Title: Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi
• Date: c. 1424
• Culture: Austria, Salzburg
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood (oak)
• Dimensions: Overall: 49.7 x 77.2 cm (19 9/16 x 30 3/8 in.); Unframed: 39 x 31.7 cm (15 3/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1941.68

A detail from the museum

On the outer wings moving clockwise are Saints Peter and Paul, Saints Christopher and Erasmus, Saint Barbara and a holy nun, and Saints George and James Major.

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry S. “A Bohemian Primitive.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 6 (1942).
• Francis, Henry S. "Early German Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art," American German Review XXI/2 (1954-1955).
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.