Die Anbetung der Könige

The various attributions to Jacques de Bellange (Thuillier 2001), to Crispin de Passe (Knab 2004) and the strong doubts on Bellange's authorship expressed by Walch in 1971 remain as vague  as the function of the drawing. The sheet is related to an etching "Adoration of the Magi", which is based on an invention of Bellange and was engraved by Crispin de Passe.

In fact, the drawing seems to anticipate the figures of the mirror-inverted print but omits certain details such as the sword in the foreground for example and the landscape and the architectural setting in the background of the scene on the sheet's top.

Nicole Walch (1971, n.191, pp. 144/145) dismisses Crispin de Passe but considers another unknown Netherlandish artist. He may have borrowed from Bellange some general stylistic features but remained inferior to the capabilities of the artist from Lorrains in regard of space and composition. The drawing may anticipate an unknown state in the process of the etching's execution by an artist who was slightly leaning on the vocabulary of Bellange.