Adoration of the Kings (David, London)

The Adoration of the Kings by the Early Netherlandish painter Gerard David (c. 1460 – 1523) is a painting in oil on panel, probably from after 1515, now in the National Gallery in London (NG 1079).

Another figure in a turban stands in shadow some steps up the staircase in the tower at left, cut off at the edge of the paint, this is "clearly Saint Joseph".

[5] The traditional ox and ass are not in the main scene, but can be seen through the ruined wall above the foremost king's head, respectively sitting and grazing on a patch of grass.

Both were auctioned again in August 1835 and bought by a Dr Willis, later passing to a surgeon, Joseph Henry Green, who lived in Monken Hadley, a little way north of London.

Green died in 1863 and his widow (Anne Eliza, d. 1879) bequeathed all the Dutch and Flemish paintings in the collection to the National Gallery, who received them in 1880.

[8] The painting is now considered likely to be mainly by David himself,[7] with the usual assistance from his workshop – at this date he may have been running two simultaneously, in Antwerp and Bruges.