The Saint Columba Altarpiece (or Adoration of the Kings) is a large c. 1450–1455[1] oil-on-oak wood panel altarpiece by Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden painted during his late period. It was commissioned for the church of St. Columba in Cologne, and is now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.[2] It depict scenes from the early life of Jesus. They show, from left to right, the Annunciation (when Mary is visited by the archangel Gabriel), the Adoration of the Magi (when she gives birth in a stable) and the Presentation, when she presents the infant at the Temple in Jerusalem. In each panel, Mary is distinguished by her blue clothes. The reverse of the exterior panels are covered with plain paint and lack indication that they ever contained donor portraits as were typical for the time.[2]
The St. Columba church was founded in 1467 as a burial chapel: three years after van der Weyden's death.[3] The triptych was frequently copied in the 15th and 16th centuries and inspired some of Hans Memling's works, among them the Jan Floreins Altarpiece.[2][4] The work draws inspiration from Stefan Lochner's Altarpiece of the Patron Saints of Cologne (1440s),[5] which Van der Weyden is known to have seen. The triptych was attributed to Jan van Eyck for a period in the 19th century.