How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Buy a print or image licence
You can purchase this reproduction
If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
At the end of their long journey, three magnificently dressed kings offer gifts to the Christ Child, who is seated on the Virgin’s lap. Behind them, their retinue winds its way through the hilly landscape from Jerusalem, visible on a distant hilltop. This is the Adoration of the Kings (Matthew 2: 11), when three kings followed a star from the East to find the infant Christ in a stable in Bethlehem. This altarpiece is the largest and most impressive of the National Gallery’s collection of paintings made in Lombardy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The scene is carefully structured to focus attention on the gifts and Christ, but anecdotal details bring the procession to life. At the back, two men – one wears a furry cap, the other a hood – hold falcons.
Title
The Adoration of the Kings
Date
perhaps about 1500
Medium
Oil on poplar
Measurements
H 238.8 x W 210.8 cm
Accession number
NG729
Acquisition method
Bought, 1863
Work type
Painting
