Exhibition
To mark the Holy Christmas season, the Museo Diocesano – in collaboration with the Arcidiocesi di Milano – Ufficio beni ecclesiastici, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per la Città metropolitana di Milano and the Institut royal du patrimoine artistique (IRPA) in Brussels – is hosting an extraordinary work, from the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli e Nazaro Maggiore in Milan.
This is the Retable of the Magi, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture from the Southern Netherlands: an imposing painted and gilded sculptural ensemble made in Brussels in the late 15th or early 16th century by the workshop of the Flemish carver Jan II Borman (c. 1460 – c. 1520). The work’s exceptional nature lies in the fact that it is the only known example from this famous workshop to have preserved its original polychromy and decorative apparatus, and one of the very few Flemish altarpieces preserved in Italy – indeed still in its original setting.
The wooden altarpiece is presented following the complex restoration (2022–2023) carried out at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA) in Brussels, which has restored the work’s original appearance, with its refined polychromy and sophisticated decorative techniques.
