(Aelst 1502–1550 Brussels)
A Triptych: The Adoration of the Magi,
the outer wings with the coat of arms of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the crowned monogram of Archduke Leopold of Austria (1863–1931)
oil on panel, 105 x 72 cm (central panel), each 105 x 30.5 cm (wings), framed

Provenance:
Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (1863–1931), Hernstein Palace, Lower Austria;
Archduke Francis Joseph of Austria (1905–1975);
sale Sotheby’s, London, 8th July 1999, lot 49;
Private collection, Austria

Additional Provancance:
The triptych by Pieter Coecke van Aelst was part of the collection of the important patron of the arts Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (1614-1662), Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. His collection forms the nucleus of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

See the Inventory of the archducal collection (published by A. Berger, Inventar der Kunstsammlung des Erzherzogs Leopold Wilhelm von Österreich, in: Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 1, 1883, LXXIX-CLXXVII), no. 835 (‚Ein khlein Altarstuckh von Öelfarb auf Holcz, warinen die Opfferung der h. drey Khönigen. In einer schwarcz glatten Ramen, die innere Leisten verguldt, obenher glatt vnd oben in Zirath, hoch 4 Spann 7 Finger vnd braidt 3 Spann. Original von einen vnbekhandten Maister‘).

The present triptych can be regarded as an important work by Pieter Coecke van Aelst. It was unknown to Georges Marlier, who was the first to publish the corpus of the artist’s oeuvre in 1966. The triptych’s composition is closely related, but is not identical, to a triptych of the Adoration of the Magi now in the Archiepiscopal Museum, Utrecht (see G. Marlier, La Renaissance Flamande – Pierre Coeck d’Alost, Brussels, 1966, fig. 77). Stylistically the present work is also closely related to the Adoration by Coecke van Aelst in the Prado, Madrid. In both cases, the painter incorporated the figures of the wings into the scene of the central composition. This constituted a novelty that opposed traditional practice, according to which the wings represented scenes that had nothing to do with the subject depicted at centre. In this way, a sense of generous spatiality and symmetry was created that was to become a trademark of such artists of the next generation as Joos van Cleve and the Master of the Female Half-Lenghts.

It seems that Pieter Coecke van Aelst, who according to Karel van Mander had been trained by the Brussels-based court painter Barend van Orley, travelled to Rome as a young man, from where he brought back with him drawings of architectural structures and sculptures. His paintings repeatedly reveal Italian influences, a tendency which also holds true for the present triptych. The artist’s interest in classical architecture also manifests itself in his translations of the architectural treatises by Sebastiano Serlio and Vitruvius into Flemish. By 1527 Coecke van Aelst had returned to Antwerp, where he became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke. Between 1533 and 1534 he sojourned in Istanbul, where he drew the preliminary designs for his woodcuts devoted to the theme of “Costumes and Customs of the Turks’, published by his widow in 1553. In his art, oriental influences are betrayed time and again in exotically dressed figures, such as in Melchior in the present triptych, who wears a turban. In 1546 the artist left Antwerp for Brussels. In the year of his death he was appointed court painter to Emperor Charles V.

Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (from the Tuscan family line) had the present triptych reframed and had his monogram and his family’s coat of arms attached to the reverse sides of the wings. He was married to Princess Blanca of Spain (1868–1949), a daughter of the Carlist duke of Madrid. For a long time, the triptych was in the archducal Palace of Hernstein near Baden, built by Theophil von Hansen as one of the most important Austrian palace structures in the Historicist style.

Additional image
The outer wings with the coat-of-arms of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine

Provenance:
Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (1863–1931), Hernstein Palace, Lower Austria;
Archduke Francis Joseph of Austria (1905–1975);
sale Sotheby’s, London, 8th July 1999, lot 49;
Private collection, Austria

The present triptych can be regarded as an important work by Pieter Coecke van Aelst. It was unknown to Georges Marlier, who was the first to publish the corpus of the artist’s oeuvre in 1966. The triptych’s composition is closely related, but is not identical, to a triptych of the Adoration of the Magi now in the Archiepiscopal Museum, Utrecht (see G. Marlier, La Renaissance Flamande – Pierre Coeck d’Alost, Brussels, 1966, fig. 77). Stylistically the present work is also closely related to the Adoration by Coecke van Aelst in the Prado, Madrid. In both cases, the painter incorporated the figures of the wings into the scene of the central composition. This constituted a novelty that opposed traditional practice, according to which the wings represented scenes that had nothing to do with the subject depicted at centre. In this way, a sense of generous spatiality and symmetry was created that was to become a trademark of such artists of the next generation as Joos van Cleve and the Master of the Female Half-Lenghts.

It seems that Pieter Coecke van Aelst, who according to Karel van Mander had been trained by the Brussels-based court painter Barend van Orley, travelled to Rome as a young man, from where he brought back with him drawings of architectural structures and sculptures. His paintings repeatedly reveal Italian influences, a tendency which also holds true for the present triptych. The artist’s interest in classical architecture also manifests itself in his translations of the architectural treatises by Sebastiano Serlio and Vitruvius into Flemish. By 1527 Coecke van Aelst had returned to Antwerp, where he became a master in the Guild of Saint Luke. Between 1533 and 1534 he sojourned in Istanbul, where he drew the preliminary designs for his woodcuts devoted to the theme of “Costumes and Customs of the Turks’, published by his widow in 1553. In his art, oriental influences are betrayed time and again in exotically dressed figures, such as in Melchior in the present triptych, who wears a turban. In 1546 the artist left Antwerp for Brussels. In the year of his death he was appointed court painter to Emperor Charles V.

Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (from the Tuscan family line) had the present triptych reframed and had his monogram and his family’s coat of arms attached to the reverse sides of the wings. He was married to Princess Blanca of Spain (1868–1949), a daughter of the Carlist duke of Madrid. For a long time, the triptych was in the archducal Palace of Hernstein near Baden, built by Theophil von Hansen as one of the most important Austrian palace structures in the Historicist style.

Additional image
The outer wings with the coat-of-arms of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine