Adoration of the Magi

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a subject treated by great artists, from Lorenzo Monaco, representative of the Florentine school, early in the 15th century, to Rubens, in the 17th century, who painted it 15 times. Florentine art, on this subject, reached its best expression through Botticelli. A celebrated picture, by him, is in the Uffizi, Florence. In this picture, the three kings are portraits of Gosine, Giuliano, and Giovanni de Medici, while the Virgin occupies a hut among ruins and rocks. Botticelli's pupil, Filippino Lippi, has also some contemporary portraits in his painting in the Uffizi. The entire scene of Tintoretto's, in the Scuola di San Rocco, at Venice, is lighted by radiance coming from the body of Child. He represents the Venetian school, and his fresco was made famous by Ruskin in his "Stones of Venice." In Rembrandt's painting, in Buckingham Palace, the Virgin and the Child are seated at the right, while before them kneel the Magi; in the background are the kings and old men; in the distance are camels. The picture by Albert Dürer is in the Uffizi, Florence. In the Musée de Peinture, at Brussels, Belgium, is the painting by Rubens. Another of Rubens', in the Museum of Antwerp, Belgium, has life-size figures. Paolo Veronese's splendid picture is in the Museum at Dresden. The noted triptych, called the "Dombild," in the Cathedral of Cologne, by Meister Stephan (died 1451), is considered the finest work of the early German school. Modern painters have also produced excellent works on this subject. Burne- Jones has a tapestry at Exeter College, Oxford. The fresco in the Church of the Incarnation, in New York City, is the work of La Farge.