Thousands of depictions of the Gospel scene of the Three Wise Men bringing gifts to the newborn Jesus have survived from the Middle Ages. Among the ivory reliefs, book miniatures, mosaics, frescoes, altar panels, and stained glass windows, one image stands out and has long intrigued historians: Hieronymus Bosch's triptych 'Adoration of the Magi.' It is filled with iconographic 'anomalies.' Who is the bearded man standing in the doorway of the hut? His red cloak is draped over his naked body, his head is wrapped in a turban entwined with thorns, and his ankle is encased in a glass vessel, through which a bleeding wound is visible. Why are sirens and fish devouring each other depicted on the robes of the black Magi and his servant?
In the West, the three 'kings' who came to Bethlehem were revered as saints, and these details ill-fit with righteousness. To decipher Bosch's message, medievalist historian Mikhail Maizuls turns to medieval demonology, anti-Jewish polemics, astrological theories, and apocalyptic myths about the end times and the Antichrist.