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Adoration of the Magi in the Snow

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Adoration of the Magi in the Snow
ArtistPieter Bruegel the Elder
Mediumoil on oak panel
Dimensions35 cm × 55 cm (14 in × 22 in)
LocationAm Römerholz, Winterthur

The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow or (Adoration of the Magi in a Winter Landscape) is a painting in in oils on oak panel, probably of 1563, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, now in the Oskar Reinhart Collection Am Römerholz in Winterthur, Switzerland. With two Italian exceptions, it is thought to be the first depiction of falling snow in a Western painting, the snowflakes boldly shown by dots of white across the whole scene,[1] added when the work was otherwise completed.[2]

The very common subject of the Adoration of the Magi, showing the visit of the three Biblical Magi to the baby Jesus and his parents, is given a resolutely down to earth treatment, set in a contemporary Netherlandish village.[3] The weather is dull, the size of the painting relatively small, and the figures all well wrapped-up, making some details more easily seen in the numerous early copies, many by Bruegel's son Pieter Brueghel the Younger. These generally show snow on the ground, but not actually falling. It was Bruegel's third known painting of the subject.[4]

Copy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Museo Correr, Venice

At 35 cm × 55 cm (14 in × 22 in) it is considerably smaller than most of Bruegel's various other compositions showing crowds of figures in a village setting, which are mostly over three times higher, at between 110 and 120 cm high. Like many of Bruegel's paintings, it is signed and dated, but the date, in Roman numerals in the bottom left corner, is hard to read, though 1563 is now generally accepted.[5]

Description

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Detail of the stable, with Mary, Jesus and Joseph. Two Magi kneel, while the young black one stands at right

The gloom and snow, together with the small scale and muted colours, mean the scene in the stable "can just be made out" in its "unexpected spot" in the bottom left corner. The diagonal arrangement of the many figures crowding the village street "tends to lead the eye away from the main event".[6] These are the usual baggage train of the Magi, but only mules seem to be used, and all the figures are very well wrapped-up against the weather, stressing "the anonymity of everyone present, their utterly impersonal assimilation into the divine scheme".[7]

In the frozen piece of water across the road from the stable, a hole has been made for getting water, probably by the two men on the bridge grappling with a log. Two other men are now carrying water up the steps in buckets. Behind them, a toddler is cheerfully propelling himself across the ice, sitting in some improvised "kind of sledge" and using sticks like oars. The child is unaware he is heading straight towards the hole in the ice, but his mother on the raised bank above has just noticed this, and is springing into action.[8]

To the right of the picture, the street is dominated by the ruin of a Romanesque palace,[9] and at the centre rear a castle can dimly be made out; this is much clearer in several copies.

Provenance

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The painting, or a drawing of it, was evidently available in the Brueghel family workshop, and there are an unusually large number of early copies by the Brueghel circle. The RKD records 36, with "about 25" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger; only the Winter Landscape with Ice skaters and Bird trap has more,[10] at about 127. This is a similar size, with smaller figures spread across a snowy landscape. The original is first recorded in the important collection of the German-born banker Everhard Jabach in Paris in 1696, the year after his death; most of his collection had been sold to Louis XIV and is now in the Louvre.[11]

Nothing is then known until it was owned by the grand Silesian magnate family of the Grafs Saurma by the early 20th century, before passing through the hands of the Berlin art dealer Paul Cassirer to be bought by the Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart in 1930.[12]

  • The scene on the frozen water
    The scene on the frozen water
  • The stable group in the Museo Correr copy
    The stable group in the Museo Correr copy
  • Two of the mules, with the castle behind, Museo Correr copy
    Two of the mules, with the castle behind, Museo Correr copy

See also

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Notes

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Adoration of the Kings in the snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
  1. ^ Wied, 156
  2. ^ Cat
  3. ^ Wied, 144
  4. ^ Wied, 156
  5. ^ Wied, 144 still thought it was 1567, but the museum and most very recent sources (RKD, cat) say 1563
  6. ^ Wied, 156
  7. ^ Wied, 156
  8. ^ Wied, 156
  9. ^ Wied, 156-157
  10. ^ RKD
  11. ^ Wied, 144
  12. ^ Cat

References

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  • "RKD": RKD page
  • Wied, Alexander, Bruegel, 1980, Studio Vista, ISBN 0289709741

Further reading

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  • The Miracle in the Snow. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 2019 (exhibition catalogue, Hirmer, Monaco, ISBN 9783777434988, edited by Kerstin Richter, Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz', for the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, with texts by Dominique Allart, Katja Baumhoff, Christina Currie, Volker Dietzel, Pascale Fraiture, Elke Oberthaler, Sabine Pénot, Kerstin Richter
  • (in German) Christian Gräf: Die Winterbilder Pieter Bruegels d. Ä. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken, ISBN 978-3-639-12775-1, Kapitel "Anbetung im Schnee (1567) – Säkularisierte religiöse Ikonographie und innovative Darstellung von Schneefall", S. 104ff
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