From early or mid-1650s On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 615. Van der Neer’s preoccupation with light effects in nature led him to paint dozens of nocturnal views. In this case the warm light of a forge and a bonfire set off the cool glow and reflections of the moon. Recent conservation treatment has revealed the buttery yellow of the moon and the bright orange glow of the forge.

ca. 1786–1806 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 805 This study shows a range of climatic conditions stacked one above the other. It lightens progressively over a space that extends thousands of feet, from the rainstorm at lower left to the clear sky at top. Denis’s plein-air sketches epitomize the Enlightenment’s embrace of empirical research in the pursuit of knowledge. The artist employed the particular effect seen here in finished paintings of the 1790s, and perhaps earlier.

ca. 1520 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 537 First established in Bruges, Gerard David also joined the painter’s guild in Antwerp in 1515, where his compositions and motifs soon began to circulate. This excellently preserved panel is strongly indebted to David’s work. The extravagantly dressed onlookers, however, are a pure invention of Antwerp art, as is the landscape view with travelers carrying goods for trade. Due to Antwerp’s status as the mercantile center for Northern Europe, scenes of the Adoration of the Magi were particularly popular in the city. They served not only a devotional use, but could also be associated with the travel of foreign goods.