Some paintings never cease to amaze. They offer more and more as you give them time to. Just such a picture is Jan Gossaert’s Adoration of the Magi in the National Gallery, made in the Netherlands more than five centuries ago, but so well preserved and pristine that it could have been finished this morning. In a ruined roofless building on a broken-up stone terrace, animals, angels and richly-robed kings gather to pay homage to the Infant Christ enthroned on the lap of His Virgin Mother.
At the apex of the composition is the brilliant star marking the spot where the Saviour was to be found, in Bethlehem in Judea. Every square centimetre of the panel is highly wrought with fine colours and refined brushwork; every detail is rendered in sharp focus.
