The
Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
painter
Filippino LippiFilippino Lippi was a well-known painter working during the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy.-Biography:...
. It is signed and dated at 1496. It is housed in the
UffiziThe Uffizi Gallery , is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world. It's housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy.-History:...
of
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
.
The panel was painted for the Convent of the San Donato agli Scopeti, in substitution of
the one commissionedThe Adoration of the Magi is an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence, but departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished...
in 1481 to
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
, who left it unfinished. In 1529 it was acquired by Cardinal
Carlo de' MediciCarlo de' Medici may refer to:*Carlo de' Medici , illegitimate child of Cosimo de' Medici*Carlo de' Medici , Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Dean of the College of Cardinals...
and in 1666 it became part of the Uffizi collection.
Filippino Lippi followed Leonardo's setting, in particular in the central part of the work.
The
Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
painter
Filippino LippiFilippino Lippi was a well-known painter working during the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy.-Biography:...
. It is signed and dated at 1496. It is housed in the
UffiziThe Uffizi Gallery , is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world. It's housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy.-History:...
of
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
.
The panel was painted for the Convent of the San Donato agli Scopeti, in substitution of
the one commissionedThe Adoration of the Magi is an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence, but departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished...
in 1481 to
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
, who left it unfinished. In 1529 it was acquired by Cardinal
Carlo de' MediciCarlo de' Medici may refer to:*Carlo de' Medici , illegitimate child of Cosimo de' Medici*Carlo de' Medici , Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Dean of the College of Cardinals...
and in 1666 it became part of the Uffizi collection.
Filippino Lippi followed Leonardo's setting, in particular in the central part of the work. Much of its inspiration was clearly derived from Botticelli's
Adoration of the MagiThe Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, dating from 1475 or 1476. It is housed in the Uffizi of Florence.The Adoration of the Magi theme was popular in the Renaissance Florence...
, also in the Uffizi: this is evident in the disposition of the characters on the two sides, with the Holy Family portrayed in the centre under. Similarly to Botticelli's work, Filippino also portrayed numerous members of the Medici cadet line, who had adhered to the Savonarolian Republic in the period in which the work was executed. On the left, kneeling and holding with a
quadrantNot to be confused with quartileQuadrant may refer to:* Quadrant , a measuring instrument capable of measuring angles up to 90°* In science-fiction: Galactic quadrants...
, is
Pierfrancesco de' MediciPierfrancesco de' Medici the Elder was an Italian banker and diplomat, a member of the House of Medici of Florence....
. Behind him, standing, are his two sons Giovanni, holding a goblet, and Lorenzo, from whom a page is removing a crown.
The general style is that of Filippino's late career, characterized by a greater care to details and by a nervous rhythm in the forms, influenced by the knowledge of foreign painting schools (as also in the landscape of the background).