The Three Magi, from an Adoration Group

The Three Magi, from an Adoration Group

Hans Thoman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has possessed this sculpture of the Three Magi offering their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in its collection since 1951. The recent acquisition of the Virgin and Child has provided the Museum with the exceptional opportunity to reunite these sculptures, originally part of the large altarpiece dismantled in the early nineteenth century. Altarpieces depicting the Adoration of the Magi were widespread in Germany during the late Middle Ages, particularly following the city of Cologne’s acquisition of the Magi’s relics in 1164. It has been proposed that the first two Magi, Melchior and Balthazar, might depict the Hapsburg emperor Maximilian I and his son, Philip.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Three Magi, from an Adoration GroupThe Three Magi, from an Adoration GroupThe Three Magi, from an Adoration GroupThe Three Magi, from an Adoration GroupThe Three Magi, from an Adoration Group

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.