The sketch for Rubens’s great altarpiece for Saint Michaels’ Abbey, Antwerp (now in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunst, Antwerp), painted c.1624. The Magi came from the east, following a star, to seek the King of the Jews (Matthew II, 1–11). They found Christ twelve days after his birth, and paid homage to him at the stable. Caspar, or Jasper, the oldest, is shown kneeling before the Infant Christ, offering his gift of gold, homage to Christ’s kingship. Behind him inclines Melchior, whose pages carry his gift of frankincense, homage to Christ’s divinity, while in the centre, Balthazar holds out his gift of myrrh, used in embalming and thus foreshadowing Christ’s death. The rapid, fluid execution is typical of Rubens’s sketches on panel.