This relief shows the Adoration of the Magi. These are the three wise men or kings who came to Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The Virgin and Child are seated on a throne at the centre. The eldest king, Caspar, is kneeling, Melchior stands to the left, and the third wise man Balthasar, shown here as an African, stands to the right.
Although the sculpture is unmarked, we are sure that it was made in a workshop in Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) in the early 1500s. This is because certain features of this relief match those of statuettes that we know were made in Malines. They included the distinctive faces, especially that of the Virgin, the type of base, the flattened relief and the multi-colour decoration.
This piece may have originally stood at the centre of a group of religious figures set in a framed garden. This type of tableau or group was known as a hortus conclusus or closed garden. It seems that these gardens were made only in Malines.They were popular in the Southern Netherlands in the late 1400s and and early 1500s, when this relief was made. They were particularly associated with convents and hospitals, where prayers were offered to the images of saints shown in the miniature gardens.