Adoration Of The Magi In The Snow

The ''Adoration of the Magi in the Snow'' (or ''Adoration of the Magi in a Winter Landscape'') is a painting in oils on oak panel of 1563, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, now in the Oskar Reinhart Collection Am Römerholz in Winterthur, Switzerland. With two Italian exceptions, it is thought to be the first depiction of falling snow in a Western painting, the snowflakes boldly shown by dots of white across the whole scene, added when the work was otherwise completed.

The very common subject of the Adoration of the Magi, showing the visit of the three Biblical Magi to the baby Jesus and his parents, is given a resolutely down to earth treatment, set in a contemporary Netherlandish village. The weather is dull, the size of the painting relatively small, and the figures all well wrapped-up, making some details more easily seen in the numerous early copies, many by Bruegel's son Pieter Brueghel the Younger. These generally show snow on the ground, but not actually falling. It was Bruegel's second painting of the subject.

At 35 cm × 55 cm (14 in × 22 in) it is considerably smaller than most of Bruegel's other examples of "the crowded, high-angle, small-figure compositions of his middle years", mostly with crowds of figures in a village setting. These are mostly over three times higher, at between 110 and 120 cm high. Like many of Bruegel's paintings, it is signed and dated, but the date, in Roman numerals in the bottom left corner, is hard to read, though 1563 is now generally accepted.

Description

The gloom and snow, together with the small scale and muted colours, mean the scene in the stable "can just be made out" in its "unexpected spot" in the bottom left corner. The diagonal arrangement of the many figures crowding the village street "tends to lead the eye away from the main event". This displacement of the main scene away from the centre is typical of Bruegel's works, seen for example in his earlier ''Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'', and later ''The Census at Bethlehem''.

There is the usual baggage train of the Magi, but only mules seem to be used, and all the figures are very well wrapped-up against the weather, stressing "the anonymity of everyone present, their utterly impersonal assimilation into the divine scheme". It is hard to distinguish the visitors from the villagers, and perhaps soldiers from the castle.

In the frozen piece of water across the road from the stable, a hole has been made for getting water, probably by the two men on the bridge grappling with a log. Two other men are now carrying water up the steps in buckets. Behind them, a toddler is cheerfully propelling himself across the ice, sitting in some improvised "kind of sledge" and using sticks like oars. The child is unaware he is heading straight towards the hole in the ice, but his mother on the raised bank above has just noticed this, and is springing into action. Two children play on similar equipment in ''The Census at Bethlehem''.

To the right of the picture, the street is dominated by the ruin of a Romanesque palace, propped up by a large beam, and at the centre rear a castle can dimly be made out; this is much clearer in several copies. Bruegel's winter skies, showing a variety of atmospheric conditions, have been praised by critics and meteorologists alike. Here, the sky is "a featureless veil of nimbostratus

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