Pieter Coecke van Aelst
	Flemish, 1502-1550
	Oil and tempera
	42 x 28 inches (106.7 x 71.1 cm)
	Acquisition: Gift of Elizabeth Benoist, Howard Benoist, and Roland Richards

The Adoration of the Magi is painted in the Northern Renaissance style and has an irregular shape. In the foreground the infant Christ child is seated on his mother’s lap, and the three magi admire the Christ child. In the background, architectural elements have been added to give the painting structure, and other figures can be seen.

Van Aelst is known as a painter, sculptor, architect, and draftsman, and his translations of Italian architectural treatises exposed the Netherlands to Italian art theory. He was a member of Antwerp's painters guild, and shortly before his death, he was named court painter to Emperor Charles V. Other works by van Aelst can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

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