In the seventeenth century the Flemish influence had spread throughout the country, especially the work of Rubens and Van Dyck. Three factors contributed to this trend: Philip IV's liking for Rubens' work, the trade in imported Flemish engravings, and the themes and iconography of Flemish painting, which were in tune with Counter-Reformation religious feeling.

The Granada school's liking for colourism and luminous and dynamic effects suggests that the Flemish influence was more pronounced there than in other schools in Spain. In the work of Juan de Sevilla this tendency is so pronounced that Antonio Palomino has said that the continued thorough study of Rubens' original works by the artist gave the impression that his paintings belonged to Rubens' own school.

This painting for the San Juan de Dios Hospital is an outstanding example of the works he produced after 1674 for churches and convents in Granada. The influence of Rubens' style is so evident that it appears to be a copy of a picture by Rubens painted for the Alcázar in Madrid, possibly reproduced from a print by Lucas Vosterman.

The picture displays the Baroque tendency to fill the whole surface of the painting, a mastery of drawing and painstaking attention to colour. To the left we see the Virgin with the infant Jesus and, dominating the centre of the composition, the Three Kings representing the peoples of the Earth and recognising Christ as the Universal King. Melchior is kneeling and offering Jesus the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Theologians looked for a symbolic meaning in these gifts: gold because he was a King, frankincense to represent God, and myrrh for the man, as it was used to embalm the bodies of the dead.

Louis Réau considers the theme of the Adoration of the Magi as complementary to the Nativity. It is referred to as the Epiphany because it is the first manifestation of God incarnate to Man. Matthew is the only evangelist who mentions this episode (2:1.12) and we have to turn to the apocryphal gospels for further information: the three wise men had travelled to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews, whose birth had been announced to them by a star. Matthew does not specify how many Magi visited Jesus but the number three became established because it had symbolic connotations, being the sacred number of the Trinity.