Rogier van der Weyden: Adoration of the Magi, 1455 – Porcelain Art Mug

Three kings — one kneeling, his crown set down beside him, two standing — present their gifts to the Christ Child held by the Virgin. The figures are individuated, their costumes described with a jeweller's precision; the ruin in which the Nativity takes place opens onto a landscape behind, connecting the intimate foreground to a world of historical and cosmic depth. It is a composition that manages reverence and ceremony without stiffness.

This is the central panel of the Columba Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464), the dominant painter of the Netherlandish school in the generation after Jan van Eyck. Named after the Church of St Columba in Cologne, for whose Marienkapelle it was commissioned between about 1455 and 1462, the triptych depicts the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple across its three wings, each rendered with the psychological intensity and technical command that distinguish Van der Weyden from his contemporaries. The altarpiece is today one of the great treasures of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Rogier van der Weyden, Columba Altarpiece (central panel: Adoration of the Magi), c. 1455–1462, oil on oak panel. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Public domain.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.