Dürer was a writer, painter, woodcut illustrator, and the official court artist of several Holy Roman Emperors. He was somewhat of a radical, being one of the first artists to officially embrace the ideas behind the Reformation. He was also enchanted by both the art and theoretical interests of the Italian Renaissance.
The vibrant colors and precise lines in Adoration of the Magi fall strikingly upon the eye of the viewer. Besides the figures of Mary, the Baby, and the kings in the foreground, a few remarkable details stay in the background, such as the men on horseback behind the kings.
From The Three Kings
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
And so the Three Kings rode into the West,
Through the dusk of night, over hill and dell,
And sometimes they nodded with beard on breast
And sometimes talked, as they paused to rest,
With the people they met at some wayside well.
Through the dusk of night, over hill and dell,
And sometimes they nodded with beard on breast
And sometimes talked, as they paused to rest,
With the people they met at some wayside well.
