St Peter with the Donor (left wing)
by BOSCH, Hieronymus, Oil on wood, 138 x 33 cm
The left wing of the of the Adoration of the Magi Triptych represents Pieter Bronckhorst, the donor of the altarpiece. He can be identified from the family coat-of-arms behind St Peter.
The majestic landscape unfolds in the background of all three panels. Demons haunt the ruined portal in the left wing, where Joseph sits hunched over a fire. The crumbling walls around him are the remains of King David’s palace, near which the Nativity was popularly supposed to have occurred; like the stable, it represents the Synagogue, the Old Law collapsing at the advent of the New. In the field beyond, peasants dance to the sound of bagpipes, a familiar symbol of the carnal life.