Hitchin – St. Mary’s Church (Adoration of the Magi)

Located above the north door of St. Mary’s Church in Hitchin is this large painting of the Adoration of the Magi. It occurred to me (and others will inevitably disagree) that it seemed just a little out of place, as if they had this painting and they weren’t entirely sure where to put it. And it has been moved around the church a little, although it moved to its current position in the early nineteenth century and I don’t imagine it’ll be on any travels in the near future. It was donated to the church by John Radcliffe (1738–1783) in 1774 and his family lived in Hitchin Priory so it was unlikely that a gift from the local gentry would have been declined. The painting itself is a copy of an artwork that came from Peter Paul Rubens’s workshop and it’s fortunate that it came after the Puritans had a little rummage about the church as otherwise this would have likely been destroyed. There’s some authenticity to having this religious imagery in a church, although it’s a little dark and hard to see when it’s high up on a church wall. Anyway, what really intrigued me is that no-one has ever taken it down, it would have only taken one vicar who didn’t like it and it would have gone, with the Victorians being particularly good at this wholesale removal of items.