The Adoration of the Kings

In a crowded upright composition - rare for Bruegel - the three kings press in to offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child, while soldiers and gawkers crane over their shoulders and whisper (Matthew 2). Bruegel gives the holy figures plain, careful faces but surrounds them with coarse, almost caricatured onlookers, undercutting any easy reverence. The gifts are elaborate goldsmith's work; Joseph leans aside to listen to a man murmuring in his ear. Signed and dated 1564, it is one of the few large religious scenes he built vertically rather than across a panoramic landscape.