Adoration of the Magi

Adoration of the Magi is an oil painting on oak wood painted about 1501-25 by the painter Portuguese of the period of Manueline Vicente Gil (active 1491-1525). This painting comes from Montemor-o-Velho and is currently in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon.Vicente Gil was an important painter in Lisbon, but still in the fifteenth century moved to Coimbra, perhaps because the competition in the capital of more evolved masters in the new taste of Flemish influence would prevent him from accessing relief orders. The coimbrã regional workshop of the so-called Master of The Sardoal corresponds, in fact, to the activity of Vicente Gil and his son Manuel Vicente (active 1521-1530). The Adoration of the Magi representing the biblical episode homonym shows the use of common models in Portuguese painting, but with a clearly ruder treatment, a rigid design and an application of little fluid paints characteristic of the style of this workshop.