Element of a Brussels altarpiece - King Magus, Late 15th century

Under the domination of the Dukes of Burgundy and the Habsburgs, the ancient Netherlands experienced unprecedented economic development in the 15th and 16th centuries, which encouraged flourishing artistic activity in the major centers of the region. This is the case in Mechelen, Antwerp or Brussels, which specialize in the production of large altarpieces sculpted in wood, depicting episodes from the life of Christ and the life of the Virgin. Our statuette once fitted into the body of one of them.
Genuflecting, its serious and penetrated face tilted forward, our character holds his headgear close to him in his left hand. This position echoes to the Magi who uncover and bow before the son of God in the Adoration. The gesture of his right hand can thus be read as a sign of reverence and amazement in the face of the sacred (the Child), or even as the petrification of the hand around an attribute of the wise men, which no longer exists. In terms of iconography and composition, our sculpture is reminiscent of that of the king on the dexter in the famous Altarpiece of the Adoration in Milan, made by the master Jan II Borman in his Brussels workshop over the last decade of the fifteenth century. If in stylistic terms the two cannot be totally superimposed, the sobriety of our character and his solemn accents nevertheless link him to the same production center: Brussels, far from the caricatural features and picturesque costumes of the reliefs of the competing workshops of Antwerp.

Without the base : H. 35 cm.