Small as it is, the tiny landscape squeezed into the upper corner of Adoration of the Magi is important as a forerunner of true largescale landscape painting. The craggy mountain and Gothic cathedral provide a setting, however fictitious, for the long journey of the Three Magi who came out of the Orient to honor the Christ Child with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Three Magi represent the three ages of man. Caspar, with his long white beard, embodies old age. Melchior, in red, has the full dark beard of a middle-aged man. Young Balthasar, behind him, is beardless. The rich robes of the Magi are splendid indeed compared to the simple cloak of Joseph, who eyes the visitors with some suspicion. The pristine pink marble column, strangely out of place in this old wooden stable, suggests that Christ’s birth introduced a new order to a tired world.