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De drie koningen in een droom gewaarschuwd

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De drie koningen in een droom gewaarschuwd

Aegidius Sadeler

paper
height 212 mm x width 254 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

About This Work

An angel with large, feathered wings stands beside a grand bed where the three kings sleep, gesturing toward them in a moment of divine revelation. The scene is set within a lavishly decorated interior featuring massive columns with lion-mask bases and a tiled floor. In the background, smaller vignettes show the Magi's retinue and their journey through a distant landscape.

This image illustrates the concept of divine communication through dreams (somnium), a subject of significant interest to Renaissance Neoplatonists and natural philosophers who studied the soul's receptive state during sleep. It reflects the Mannerist interest in architectural space and the tradition of using biblical narratives to explore the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds.

AngelThree KingsMagiCasparMelchiorBalthazarcrownangel73B6311G2131A51

Inscriptions

Angelus in somnis alia discedere terra         Iussit, ad herod

Translation

An angel in a dream commanded to depart to another land,
to Herod

Connected Texts

Synesius of Cyrene

His treatise 'De Insomniis' (On Dreams) was a key Neoplatonic source for understanding how the divine communicates with humans through the imaginative faculty during sleep.

Cornelius Agrippa

In 'De Occulta Philosophia', Agrippa discusses 'prophetic dreams' as a form of natural divination where the soul receives impressions from higher intelligences.

Provenance & Source

Object

Holding Institution

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Medium

paper

Dimensions

height 212 mm x width 254 mm

GenreAI

religious

Digital Source

Source

Rijksmuseum · CC0 1.0

Original Resolution

3840 × 3204 px

Harvested

March 25, 2026

Linked Data

AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.

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