The two tablets, painted on both sides, formed the side doors of a small triptych that probably presented an Adoration of the Magi in the central panel that was not received. This theme, of which the two biblical episodes on the panels were considered a prefiguration, was in fact very popular in the merchant city of Antwerp, where in the first decades of the sixteenth century a group of artists, mostly anonymous, developed a particular pictorial style, called Mannerism of Antwerp, characterized by crowded compositions, by figures in elegant and artificial poses dressed in elaborate exotic clothes, by the use of bright and iridescent colors, by a bizarre mixture, in the architecture, of late Gothic elements and of Renaissance motifs. This original language is emphasized by the technical virtuosity of Flemish painting, particularly effective in the realistic rendering of fabrics, furs, feathers, metals and jewels. On the back are depicted Saint Gertrude of Nivelles and Saint Hadrian of Nicomedia.
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Title:King David and the water carriers, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba