File:Triptych Painting.jpg

English: a) Adoration of the Magi; center panel, Virgin Mary sitting beneath roof of ruined stable, holding nude Christ Child on lap; before her, three bare-headed Magi, one wearing red robe, kneeling on ground, hands together with fingertips touching; one bearded, wearing blue robe, standing, holding platter-like object; one dark-skinned, wearing white robe with tasseled sleeve, holding vessel with red bird on rim in right hand, making gesture with left hand, followed by attendant wearing red robe; within ruined hut, left, half-nude bearded male figure wearing crown-like helmet, holding another in hand, standing before group of spectators; within hut, right, donkey; behind and on top of hut, shepherds peering at Virgin and Child; above, landscape, city of Jerusalem, star in sky; left panel, male donor wearing blue hat and robe, hands together in gesture of adoration, kneeling before bearded tonsured patron saint (Peter?) wearing red garments, two keys hanging from girdle, above, Joseph wearing white garments, sitting within enclosure of ruined building, drying swaddling clothes before fire; right panel, female donor wearing white veil, blue garment, hands together in gesture of adoration kneeling before long-haired crowned patron saint (Virgin Mary?) wearing red robe, holding book in hands; above, landscape; b) detail of Magi and spectators.Philip comments that the three kings represented the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa to the medieval world, and their adoration showed Christ to be the "King of Kings." The painting gives a pessimistic view of the world in the tumble-down stable, ruinous architecture, and various symbols of the powers of evil. The half-nude figure emerging from the hut is the anti-Christ who, according to forgotten tradition, is the false Jewish Messiah who will appear before the Last Judgment to tempt rulers to evil. He holds an inverted king's helmet whose funnel shape is in accord with Dante's description of the shape of Hell. In another opening in the hut can be seen an over-large donkey head. This variation from the traditional ox and ass suggests that the donkey is another demoniac symbol, depicting the false ass-idol, which together with the anti-Christ priest symbolizes heresy and temptation. The rotting roofing-felt and bunch of straw with ends falling like rays from a false star in a false heaven contrasts with the true star which appears in the cloudless sky above Jerusalem. Encyclopedia points out that the Epiphany is depicted as a mystical allegory of the sacrifice of the Mass: Mary is the altar on which the flesh of the Infant is radiant; Balthasar is the officiate, his two companions the servers, the donors and their patron saints the faithful. The embroideries and goldsmith's work in the painting represent scenes whose subjects recall that of the Adoration and Mass itself. The mystery unfolds in a hut that isolates its actors from the rest of the world. In this landscape of the world are references to evil in the heretical sculptures on the ruined building where Joseph sits, a mountebank crossing the plain, and so on. The group of spectators in the doorway of the stable, demoniac doubles of the Magi, also refers to worldly evil.