Carved in relief and polychromed. The grain of the wood has been used horizontally, probably because of the considerable width of the object. The object was made out of two pieces of wood: the busts of the three magi are carved from a main piece of wood, and the upper part of Balthasar’s head and the camel are carved from a second piece of wood, which is attached horizontally to the first one with a thick layer of glue. Small holes in the support indicate that the pieces were once assembled with nails.

Verslag van de directie over het jaar 1996, p. 53

The wood at the front is in good condition, but the back has suffered mould and woodworm damage. The fragment has been sawn off at chest height with a mechanical saw. An object in Melchior’s left hand, Balthasar’s left forearm and three fingers of his right hand are missing. The two pieces of wood of the support have been detached and fixed several times.

…; acquired in Nijmegen by the dealer M.J. Schretlen (1890-1972), Amsterdam, first documented in 1924;¹¹M.J. Schretlen, ‘Sculptuur om Scorel’, Het Gildeboek 7 (1924), pp. 135-38, esp. p. 136. from whom, with BK-16384, fl. 5,000, to the museum, 1949

Object number: BK-16120

This fragment was part of an Adoration of the Magi. All that survives is the topmost part with the three wise men and the camel. The rest has been sawn off, probably because of damage. On the left is Melchior, the oldest of the magi. He looks down towards the place where the infant Christ would have lain. He presents his gift: a gold goblet with a gadrooned cover. In the centre Balthasar, the youngest of the three, looks over his shoulder to his left. Behind him is a brick wall. The black magus, Caspar, holds his right arm aloft, probably grasping the reins of the dromedary behind him. Since the late Middle Ages the three wise men were associated with the continents known at the time. Melchior usually represents Europe, Balthasar Asia and Caspar Africa, but these identifications are not always consistent.²²G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, vol. 1, Gütersloh 1966, pp. 105-24; E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 1, Freiburg 1968, cols. 539-49.

As early as 1924, the former owner of the fragment, the art dealer M.J. Schretlen, pointed to the relationship between the fragment and the paintings of Jan van Scorel (1495-1562).³³M.J. Schretlen, ‘Sculptuur om Scorel’, Het Gildeboek 7 (1924), pp. 135-38. He even speculated that the group might be by the master himself. As Schretlen acknowledged, however, this hypothesis was a long shot, since there is no evidence that Van Scorel ever worked as a sculptor alongside his activities as a draughtsman, painter and designer of dikes. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht does hold a section of a column with a relief which, according to tradition, was made to a design by Van Scorel,⁴⁴M.J. Schretlen, ‘Sculptuur om Scorel’, Het Gildeboek 7 (1924), pp. 135-38. and some authors believe that the carved tomb of Reinoud III of Brederode and his wife, made by the Cambrai sculptor Colijn de Nole (active in Utrecht after 1530) in the Grote Kerk in Vianen, was designed by this artist as well.⁵⁵For an overview of opinions on this subject see J. de Meyere, Het grafmonument van Reinoud III van Brederode in de Grote Kerk te Vianen. Een meesterwerk van de Utrechtse beeldhouwer Colyn de Nole, Utrecht 2010, pp. 97-101.

Be this as it may, Van Scorel’s maniera nuova – the Italian Renaissance style he introduced into the Northern Netherlands on his return from Italy in 1524, having been one of the first Northern artists to make the trip – is very evident in the altarpiece fragment. There is a great deal of movement in the work and the faces of the magi are shown not in profile or full face, but in relatively complicated three-quarter poses. Many of Van Scorel’s paintings also feature heads with large noses and short beards like the figure of Melchior on the left. Caspar’s youthful profile is very like that of Mary Magdalene in Van Scorel’s Noli Me Tangere triptych of around 1548-54 (fig. a).⁶⁶Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, inv. no. 1952P9, see J. Woodward et al., Catalogue of Paintings , coll. cat. Birmingham (City Museum and Art Gallery) 1960, pp. 130-31. Caspar’s helmet-shaped cap, moreover, is similar to the hat Christ wears in that painting. The narrow, fluid folds of his long robe recur in Melchior’s cloak and Balthasar’s sleeves. The combination of these aspects makes it quite conceivable that the altarpiece fragment was made in Jan van Scorel’s direct sphere of influence in Utrecht.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

C.H. de Jonge and D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Utrecht’s kunst in opkomst en bloei 650-1650, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1948, no. 134; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 40, with earlier literature; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, ‘Review of J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973’, Simiolus 7 (1974), pp. 103-06, esp. p. 105; Verslag van de directie over het jaar 1996, p. 53

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Three Magi, from an Adoration of the Magi, Utrecht, c. 1550 - c. 1560', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035547