This painting is a rare surviving example of distemper, a water-based medium, on canvas. The artist was active both in his native Ghent, in modern Belgium, and at the refined court in Urbino, Italy. The Adoration takes place on an unusually grand porch with ancient Roman architecture and domestic dwellings built into background cliffs, both suggestive of Italy, and the carefully measured arrangement of figures within two parallel lines nods to the geometric strategies of the Italian Renaissance. Three Black figures - the African king, the king's servant, and an observer - reflect the increasing presence of Black individuals in western Europe.
Source: metmuseum.org
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