St Peter with the Donor (left wing)

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.