Shown from the chest up, a man with peach-colored skin sits in profile facing our left with downcast eyes in this vertical painting. He has a chestnut-brown beard and hair, brown eyes under thick brows, a slightly bumped nose, and pale, coral-pink lips. His nose and cheeks are tinged with pink. His robe is vibrant rose pink over the shoulders and scarlet red over his arms. The two colors are separated by a band of gold fringe. A bright, zigzagging line along the neckline could be a necklace or the edge of a white collar. He holds a lidded vessel near his left shoulder, closer to us. One hand…
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Head of One of the Three Kings: Melchior, The Assyrian King

painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

c. 1618

Medium
oil on panel transferred to canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 66.8 x 51.5 cm (26 5/16 x 20 1/4 in.) ; framed: 90.8 x 75.6 cm (35 3/4 x 29 3/4 in.)
Culture
Flemish
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CNE-B
Credit line
Chester Dale Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art