The Adoration of the Magi, in the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, was painted by Rubens in about 1625 for the high altar of St Michael's church in the same city. Ruskin probably saw the painting on his visit to Antwerp in 1842. However, in discussing it in Modern Painters I, he misremembered the position of the bull's head; it is actually in the lower right-hand corner of the canvas. This does not detract from the essential argument concerning 'Strangeness' in which the execution of the bull's head is contrasted with that by Berchem in his painting A Farrier and Peasants (see 'Strangeness' in Berchem and Rubens).
Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640
Adoration of the Magi 1624
Oil on wood, 44.7x23.5cm
Further Comments: Rubens executed two other 'Adoration of the Magi' subjects, one in the Museo Del Prado, Madrid, and the other in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Collection: Royal Museum, Antwerp
For a reproduction of this artistic work, please consult: Cabanne, Pierre, Rubens, (Thames and Hudson, 1967), p.75 or alternatively www.abcgallery.com/R/rubens/rubens87.html