The Adoration of the Magi

c. 1440/1460

Fra Angelico

Painter, Florentine, c. 1395 - 1455

Fra Filippo Lippi

Painter, Florentine, c. 1406 - 1469

Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi

Dozens of people line up around a shed-like structure and around stone ruins to kneel before a woman and baby at the lower center of this circular painting. All the people have pale skin. The crowd gathers along a pathway that winds around a rocky mountain at the top middle of the composition. Most of the people are on foot but a few ride horses or camels. The line of people curves around and through an arched opening in a stone ruin to our left. Sitting at the center of the painting, behind the woman and baby, Mary and Jesus, the structure is open at the front and has a triangular pitched roof. Some of the people, including the three closest to Mary and Jesus, wear elegant, gold-trimmed clothing. Others wear simple tunics, and several people standing along the ruins in the middle distance wear only white loincloths. Ages of the people range from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. Their costumes are mostly pale yellow, coral orange, crimson red, shell pink, or sky blue. Some people raise their heads and hands while others hold hands to their chests and close their eyes. Mary wears a pale blue robe over a blush-pink dress. Jesus is nude and an older man standing nearby wears an apricot-colored robe over a blue tunic. The older man, Mary, and Jesus have gold halos. A peacock and two other birds stand on the roof of the manger, which shelters an ox, ass, and horses.

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The people and animals in this colorful procession are on their way to see the infant Jesus and honor his birth. The procession winds around a hill, under an ancient arch, and to the manger. At the bottom of the painting, three kneeling Magi (kings) offer gifts to the Holy Family. The crumbling structure and the nearly nude boys above may refer to the ending of the pagan world.

Fra Angelico began this tondo (round painting) but left it unfinished. Lippi completed it. Both artists were from Florence, an Italian city with a special devotion to the Magi. Every five years a spectacular parade through the city streets re-enacted the kings’ journey to meet the infant Jesus.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 4

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (diameter): 137.3 cm (54 1/16 in.)
    framed: 188 x 171.5 x 12.7 cm (74 x 67 1/2 x 5 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1952.2.2

More About this Artwork

Dozens of people line up around a shed-like structure and around stone ruins to kneel before a woman and baby at the lower center of this circular painting. All the people have pale skin. The crowd gathers along a pathway that winds around a rocky mountain at the top middle of the composition. Most of the people are on foot but a few ride horses or camels. The line of people curves around and through an arched opening in a stone ruin to our left. Sitting at the center of the painting, behind the woman and baby, Mary and Jesus, the structure is open at the front and has a triangular pitched roof. Some of the people, including the three closest to Mary and Jesus, wear elegant, gold-trimmed clothing. Others wear simple tunics, and several people standing along the ruins in the middle distance wear only white loincloths. Ages of the people range from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. Their costumes are mostly pale yellow, coral orange, crimson red, shell pink, or sky blue. Some people raise their heads and hands while others hold hands to their chests and close their eyes. Mary wears a pale blue robe over a blush-pink dress. Jesus is nude and an older man standing nearby wears an apricot-colored robe over a blue tunic. The older man, Mary, and Jesus have gold halos. A peacock and two other birds stand on the roof of the manger, which shelters an ox, ass, and horses.

Interactive Article:  Art up Close: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Spectacular “The Adoration of the Magi”

See the marvelous and mystifying details of the 15th-century painting, believed to have been made for the Medici family.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably commissioned by a member of the Medici family, Florence; by inheritance to Lorenzo de' Medici [1449-1492], Florence.[1] probably Marchese Piero Guicciardini [1569-1626]; his widow, Marchesa Simona Machiavelli [1584-1658], Florence;[2] by inheritance to her great-nephew, Count Francesco Guicciardini [1618-1677], Florence; by inheritance to his son, Count Lorenzo Guicciardini [1652-1710], Florence; by inheritance to his son, Count Francesco Gaetano Guicciardini [1699-1780], Florence; by inheritance to his son, Count Lorenzo Guicciardini [1743-1812], Florence; by inheritance to his sons, Count Francesco [1776-1838] and Colonel Ferdinando [1782-1833] Guicciardini, Florence, in 1803;[3] sold July 1810 to Chevalier François-Honoré Dubois, Florence and Paris, as by Botticelli.[4] (Samuel Woodburn, London), by 1826, as by Fra Angelico.[5] William Coningham [1815-1884], London; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 9 June 1849, no. 34, as by Filippo Lippi).[6] Alexander Barker [c. 1797-1873], London, by 1851;[7] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 6 June 1874, no. 42, as by Filippino Lippi);[8] purchased by (Giovanni Calvetti [d. 1875], London) for Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold February 1947 through (Francis A. Drey, London) to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, as by Filippo Lippi;[9] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The inventory drawn up after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent is known today from a copy made on 23 December 1512, in the Archivio di Stato in Florence; see E. Müntz, Les Collections des Médicis au XVe siècle, Paris and London, 1888: 60 (fol. 6 of the manuscript): "Nella chamera grande terrena detta chamera di Lorenzo...uno tondo grande...la nostra Donna e nostro Signore e e' Magi che vanno a offerire, di mano di fra Giovanni, f. 100" ("In the large ground-floor bedroom called Lorenzo's bedroom...a large tondo...our Lady and our Lord and the Magi who come to bring offerings, from the hand of Fra Giovanni, f. 100"). The high value assigned to the panel (considering that the three famous panels of the Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello as well as two other paintings by Uccello and a sixth by Pesellino, all in that same room, were estimated as worth 300 florins collectively) leads us to believe that the painting described was compositionally quite elaborate; this offers some--albeit slender--evidence for identifying the Medici tondo as NGA 1952.2.2.
[2] The Washington tondo and another tondo of the same subject (now in the National Gallery, London) are apparently recorded in an inventory verified on 20 April 1643 by Simona Machiavelli, the widow of Piero Guicciardini, and confirmed by her great-nephew Francesco Guicciardini on 31 July 1665 (Archivio Guicciardini, filza XLIV, ins. 7). In Valentina Fallani's study of Piero's important collection of paintings (Valentina Fallani, "Piero Guicciardini e la sua quadreria fidecommissaria nella Firenze medicea del Seicento" [diss., Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1992]), the inventory is transcribed (172-185) and hypothesized to be a record of the paintings Piero entailed on his heirs (99). The dimensions given for two round paintings depicting the Adoration of the Magi, 2 2/3 and 3 1/3 braccia, somewhat exceed those of the Washington and London pictures, but the discrepancy is probably due to the inclusion of the frames, which are described, in the measurements (as suggested in a letter from Burton Fredericksen to Nicholas Penny of 14 August 2000, copy in NGA curatorial files). An undated inventory made sometime after the 1658 death of Simona Machiavelli seems to record the Washington painting specifically: "Adorazione de' Magi in tondo, del beato Giovanni Angelico domenicano" ("Adoration of the Magi, a tondo, by the Blessed Giovanni Angelico, Dominican") (Archivio Guicciardinni, filza XLIV, ins. 5; transcribed in Fallani, "Piero Guicciardini," 187-189). The tondi stayed together, and the memory of their Guicciardini provenance remained alive, until the middle of the nineteenth century, when they become convincingly identifiable with the Washington and London tondi (see notes 4 and 5). If Piero did own the Washington picture, it could have passed from the Medici to the Guicciardini through Piero's father, Agnolo (1506-1581), who had close ties to the Medici (personal communication from Valentina Fallani to Elon Danziger, 13 April 2002). For a complete reconstruction of the early history of the painting see Elon Danziger, "Round Pictures of the Adoration of the Magi from Early Renaissance Florence," Association for Art History Newsletter 2, no. 2 (spring 2002): 5-7.
[3] According to Paolo Guicciardini, Cusona, 2 vols., Florence, 1939: 1:295, Francesco and Ferdinando were "emancipati" and given possession of their inheritance in 1803, while their parents were still living.
[4] An inventory of the Guicciardini gallery, dated 1 September 1807 (Archivio Guicciardini, filza XXXV seconda, n. 5; transcribed in Gino Corti, "Due quadrerie in Firenze: la collezione Lorenzi, prima metà del Settecento, e la collezione Guicciardini, 1807," Paragone 35, no. 417 [November 1984]: 94-101, and in Fallani 1992: 239-243), was transformed into a bill of sale when "M. Dubois" bought the entire contents (at about two-thirds assessed value) in July 1810. The two tondi were valued at 50 zecchini each. Certain unusual paintings from the Guicciardini gallery reappear at a 17 and 18 March 1813 Paris auction of paintings owned by "Dubois, commissaire de la police à Florence," allowing a more precise identification of the tondi's buyer. Police commissioner for Napoleonic Florence until 1811, Dubois left behind many letters valuable for the history of Florence under French dominion. His title and name are found in Duane Koenig's "The Napoleonic Regime in Tuscany, 1807-1814," Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1942: 93.
[5] Burton Fredericksen has discovered a 25 March 1826 private-treaty sale catalogue of the stock of Messrs. Woodburn (copies in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Royal Library, Brussels; and Bibliothèque de l'art et d'archéologie, Paris). It includes two Adoration of the Magi tondi, both with a Guicciardini provenance, attributed to Fra Angelico (no. 1) and Botticelli (no. 2), with diameters nearly identical to those of the Washington and London pictures. They probably went unsold since, as Fredericksen points out (letter to David Alan Brown, 11 July 2000, in NGA curatorial files), J.D. Passavant mentions "older pictures by Fiesole, Sandro Botticelli, and others" that he had seen in the Woodburn gallery in 1831 (Johann David Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main, 1833: 113, and English ed., Tour of a German Artist in England, 2 vols., London, 1836: I:250); these were probably the tondi since (Fredericksen continues) "works by either artist were very rare on the London market at this time." Fredericksen speculates that since Woodburn indicates in the introduction of the catalogue that almost all of the paintings in it had been acquired during recent trips to Italy, France, and Holland, the two tondi may well have been acquired directly from Dubois. He also suggests that "Coningham bought them directly from Samuel Woodburn sometime thereafter since Woodburn regularly advised Coningham on his purchases."
[6] "The Wise Men of the East offering their Presents to the Infant Christ in the lap of the Virgin, who is seated before a wooden building, with numerous figures around...From the Guicciardini Palace in Florence." Fra Filippo Lippi is suggested as the author. The sale also included the other Guicciardini tondo (no. 38), which was attributed to Filippino Lippi--a reference that makes it almost certain that the panel is to be identified, as Martin Davies thought, with Botticelli's tondo (no. 1033) in the London National Gallery (Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd rev. ed., London, 1961: 102 note 7).
[7] In Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols., London, 1854: 2:125, a compilation of paintings seen on 1850 and 1851 visits to England, the author describes a painting in Barker's collection that he attributes to Benozzo Gozzoli as "a very rich circular composition, and one of the finest specimens of the early time of this great master." Several distinctive aspects point to the Washington tondo: "it breathes the purity and intensity of religious feeling which distinguished [Gozzoli's] master Fiesole [Fra Angelico]"; "[Gozzoli's originality] is seen in many an animated action and also in the rich accessories"; "[there are] two peacocks, somewhat too large in proportion." Although what Waagen took for a second peacock is actually two pheasants, the disproportion between the birds and their surroundings in the Washington painting and, more importantly, the picture's close affinities with Angelico's late activity (and therefore the artistic milieu of Gozzoli's beginnings), are in accord with the characteristics of the work described by Waagen. Moreover, as Waagen specifies, the Barker Adoration was "formerly in the collection of Mr. Coningham." The other Coningham tondo, seen and described by Waagen, Treasures, 1854: 3:3) in the collection of W. Fuller Maitland at Stansted Hall as a work by Filippino Lippi, is the London Botticelli, acquired from Maitland's son in 1878.
[8] Some confusion has been caused by the fact that the 1874 Barker sale catalogue includes two tondi representing the Adoration of the Magi that are described in a very similar manner: no. 44 is attributed to Filippo Lippi and no. 42 to Filippino, but both are claimed to contain "portraits of the Accajuoli [sic] family." As NGA 1952.2.2 was bought by Sir Francis Cook, through his agent, at this very sale, and Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond & Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. I. Italian Schools, London, 1913: 21, specifies that the panel was lot 42, there is no serious reason to doubt his assertion in spite of the alleged Acciaiuoli portraits. Actually, the Washington Adoration does not seem to contain any portrait, but this claim derives, very likely, from a confusion with no. 44 of the Barker sale, probably the Domenico Venziano tondo in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie (no. 95A). (That painting reappeared in the 1879 Barker sale, as noted in the London Times, 23 June 1879: 12, which gives the diameter and 1874 sale price, proving the identification of lot 44 with the Berlin tondo.) In Domenico's painting, two of the Magi as well as several members of their retinue appear to be portraits, and it is quite possible that this panel was owned sometime earlier by the Acciaiuoli family.
[9] Before World War II the most important paintings from the Cook collection were sent to the United States for safekeeping. They were exhibited at the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art from 1944 to 1945, and at two museums in Canada in 1945. After complicated negotiations on the eve of the paintings' return to England, the Kress Foundation purchased a number of works, including NGA 1952.2.2. See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2039.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1868

  • Possibly National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds, 1868, no. 7 or no. 17.

1875

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1875, no. 184, as The Adoration of the Infant Savior by Fra Filippo Lippi.

1909

  • National Loan Exhibition, Grafton Galleries, London, 1909-1910, no. 68, repro., as by Fra Filippo Lippi.

1919

  • Exhibition of Florentine Painting Before 1500, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1919, no. 26 as by Fra Filippo Lippi (no. 26 and pl. XXVI in illustrated catalogue published 1920).

1930

  • Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 93, as by Fra Filippo Lippi (no. 106 and pl. XXXVIII in commemorative catalogue published 1931; no. 35 in souvenir catalogue).

1944

  • Masterpieces from the Cook Collection, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1944-1945, no. 16 (Cook collection catalogue number), repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1945

  • Masterpieces of the Cook Collection, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1945, no cat.

Bibliography

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. London, 1854: 2:125, as by Benozzo Gozzoli.

1864

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 3 vols. London, 1864-1866: 2(1864):350, as by Filippo Lippi.

1869

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. Geschichte der italienischen Malerei. 6 vols. Leipzig, 1869-1876: 3(1869):83, as by Filippo Lippi.

1883

  • Richter, J. P. Italian Art in the National Gallery. London, 1883: 19, as by Filippo Lippi.

1890

  • Morelli, Giovanni. Kunstkritische Studien über Italienische Malerei. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1890-1893: 1(1890):101 n. 1, as by Filippo Lippi.

1896

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance: with an index to their works. New York, 1896: 118, as by Filippo Lippi.

1900

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. 2nd ed. New York and London, 1900: 123, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Douglas, Langton. Fra Angelico. London, 1900: 178-179, as by Filippo Lippi.

1901

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 7, part 1 (1911):361-364, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Hamilton, Neena. Die Darstellung der Anbetung der heiligen drei Könige in der toskanischen Malerei von Giotto bis Leonardo. Strasbourg, 1901: 40-42, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Strutt, Edward. Fra Filippo Lippi. London, 1901: 61-62, 194, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Weisbach, Werner. Francesco Pesellino und die Romantik der Frührenaissance. Berlin, 1901: 27, as by Filippo Lippi.

1903

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 6 vols. Edited by Robert Langton Douglas (vols. 1-4) and Tancred Borenius (vols. 5-6). Vol. 3, The Sienese, Umbrian, and North Italian Schools. London, 1903-1914: 4(1911):175 n. 5, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Cook, Francis. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. London, 1903: 12, no. 11, as by Filippo Lippi.

1904

  • The Arundel Club for the Publication of Reproductions of Works of Art in Private Collections and Elsewhere. London, 1904: 1:no. 9, repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1905

  • Cook, Herbert. “La collection de Sir Frederick Cook, Visconde de Monserrate.” Les Arts no. 44 (August 1905): 4, as by Filippo Lippi.

1908

  • Horne, Herbert P. Alessandro Filipepi, Commonly Called Sandro Botticelli. London, 1908: 37, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy, from the II to the XVI Century. 3rd edition. 3 vols. Ed. Edward Hutton. London, 1908-1909: 2(1909):345 n. 1, as by Filippo Lippi.

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. London, 1909: 151, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Mendelsohn, Henriette. Fra Filippo Lippi. Berlin, 1909: 39-52, 254, repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1910

  • Fry, Roger. "La mostra di antichi dipinti alle 'Grafton Galleries' di Londra." Rassenga d'Arte 10, no. 3 (March 1910): 35, fig. 1, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Ffoulkes, Constance J. “Esposizione di antichi maestri a Londra.” L’Arte 13, no. 6 (July-August 1910): 299, 301, fig. 2, as by Filippo Lippi.

1913

  • Borenius, Tancred. A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2. Edited by Herbert Cook. London, 1913: vi, 21-22, no. 16, repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1914

  • Frizzoni, Gustavo. “Rivelazioni della Galleria Cook a Richmond.” Rassegna d’Arte 1 (1914): 122, repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1917

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. “The Cook Collection. Part I. The Italian Schools.” Connoisseur 86 (March 1917): 124-126, repro., as by Filippo Lippi.

1919

  • Phillips, Claude. “Florentine Art before 1500.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 34 (1919): 21, 214, as by Filippo Lippi.

1923

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 10(1928):402, fig. 244, as by Filippo Lippi.

1925

  • Yashiro, Yukio. Sandro Botticelli. 3 vols. London and Boston, 1925: 1:75, as by Filippo Lippi.

1929

  • Toesca, Pietro. “Filippo Lippi.” In Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti. Edited by Istituto Giovanni Treccani. 36 vols. Milan, 1929-1939: 21(1934):238, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

1930

  • Borenius, Tancred. “Pictures from British Collections at the Italian Exhibition.” Apollo 11, no. 62 (1930): 97-98, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Constable, W. G. “Dipinti di raccolta inglesi alla mostra d’arte italiana a Londra.” Dedalo 10, no. 13 (May 1930): 727, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Suida, Wilhelm. “Die Austellung italienischer Kunst in London.” Belvedere 9 (1930): 37, as by Filippo Lippi.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 288, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Berenson, Bernard. “Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo e la cronologia.” Bollettino d’Arte 26, no. 2 (August 1932): 1-22, 49-66, fig. 2.

  • Mengin, Urbain. Les deux Lippi. Paris, 1932: 109, 115, 237, as by Filippo Lippi.

1933

  • Venturi, Lionello. “Lo sviluppo artistico di Filippo Lippi.” L’Arte n.s. 36 (January 1933): 39-45, as by Filippo Lippi.

1934

  • Pudelko, Georg. “Studien über Domenico Veneziano.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 4 (January 1934): 166-167, 168, 171-172, 174, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Salmi, Mario. “Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano, Piero della Francesca, e gli affreschi del Duomo di Prato.” Bollettino d’Arte 28 (1934): 27 n. 6.

1935

  • Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Antonio Pollaiolo e l’arte fiorentina del Quattrocento." Part 2: Critica d'Arte 1, no. 2 (December 1935): 75, 80. Part 3: Critica d'Arte 1, no. 3 (February 1936): 115 n. 2.

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 20, 248.

  • Pudelko, Georg. “Per la datazione delle opere di Fra Filippo Lippi.” Rivista d’arte 18 (1936): 35, 68-76, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Salmi, Mario. “La giovinezza di Fra Filippo Lippi.” Rassegna d’Arte 18 (1936): 1-2, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. “Filippo Lippi a Padova.” Rassegna d’Arte 18 (1936): 29.

  • Hauptmann, Moritz. Der Tondo: Ursprung, Bedeutung und Geschichte des italienischen Rundbildes in Relief und Malerei. Frankfurt, 1936: 180.

1938

  • Mesnil, Jacques. Botticelli. Paris, 1938: 10, 37-38, 196 n. 31, as by Filippo Lippi.

1941

  • Pittaluga, Mary. “Note sulla bottega di Filippo Lippi – Parte 2.” L’Arte 11, no. 2 (1941): 67-73.

1942

  • Oertel, Robert. Fra Filippo Lippi. Vienna, 1942: 28-30, 70, pl. 72, as by Filippo Lippi.

1949

  • Pittaluga, Mary. Fra Filippo Lippi. Florence, 1949: 75, 76-79, 200, 211-213, figs. 56, 57, as by Filippo Lippi possibly with Pesellino.

  • Ragghianti, Carlo L. “La Collezione S. H. Kress nella National Gallery of Art.” Critica d’Arte 8, no. 1 (May 1949): 81.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 42, no. 9, repro.

  • Comstock, Helen. “Additions to the Kress Collection.” Connoisseur 127 (September 1951): 66, repro.

  • Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951: 78 n. 6.

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 32-33, repro.

1952

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 84, repro.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Fra Angelico. London, 1952: 204, 206, as "substantially" by Filippo Lippi.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: cover and 60, repro.

  • Volpe, Carlo. “In margine a un Filippo Lippi.” Paragone 83, no. 7 (November 1956): 43, 45 n. 4.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 9, 106.

1958

  • Salmi, Mario. Il Beato Angelico. Spoleto, 1958: 68, 89, 94, 127, fig. 120b, as by Filippo Lippi.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 50, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Early Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Three in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 26, color repro.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 6.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 25-28, repro. pl. 19, color repro. 20-21.

  • Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1961: 102 n. 6.

  • Eisler, Colin. “The Athlete of Virtue, the Iconography of Asceticism.” In Millard Meiss, ed. Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky. De Artibus Opuscula 40. New York, 1961: 87-88.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 12, color repro.

  • Salvini, Roberto. “Note sul Botticelli.” In Valentino Martinelli and Filippa M. Aliberti, eds. Scritti di Storia dell’arte in onore di Mario Salmi. 3 vols. Rome, 1961-1963: 2(1962):299, 304.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 76, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:16.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 8.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:24, color repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 95-97, fig. 259-261.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 2, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 11, 23-24, color repro.

  • Degenhart, Bernhard, and Annegrit Schmitt. Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450, 1: Süd- und Mittelitalien. 4 vols. Berlin, 1968: 2, pt. 1:532.

  • Hendy, Philip. Piero della Francesca and the Early Renaissance. London and New York, 1968: 43-44.

  • Conti, Alessandro. “Quadri alluvionati 1333, 1557, 1966. I.” Paragone 19, no. 215 (January 1968): 21 n. 51.

  • Shell, Curtis. “Domenico Veneziano. Two Clues.” In Festschrift Ulrich Middeldorf. 2 vols. Berlin, 1968: 1:154.

1970

  • Berenson, Bernard. “Postscript, 1949: The Cook Tondo Revisited.” In Bernard Berenson. Homeless Paintings of the Renaissance. Ed. Hanna Kiel. London and Bloomington, IN, 1970: 235-242, figs. 416-418, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Berenson, Bernard. "Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo and theri Chronology." In Bernard Berenson. Homeless Paintings of the Renaissance. Ed. Hanna Kiel. London and Bloomington, IN, 1970: 199-214, 220, 226-230, figs. 362-368, 370, 372. [Reprint of "Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo e la cronologia," 1936].

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 9, 107, 647.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 385.

1974

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Fra Angelico. 2nd ed. London and New York, 1974: 38, 219, pl. 142, fig. 46.

  • Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector. Boston, 1974: 147-149, repro.

1975

  • Ruda, Jeffrey. "The National Gallery Tondo of the Adoration of the Magi and the Early Style of Filippo Lippi." Studies in the History of Art vol. 7 (1975):6-39, figs. 1-3, 10-13, 18, 23, 24, 28, as by Filippo Lippi with an assistant or follower of Fra Angelico.

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 12, repro.

  • Marchini, Giuseppe. Filippo Lippi. Milan, 1975: 15, 17, 25, 26, 27, 98, 205-206, cat. 27, figs. 47-49.

  • Borsook, Eve. “Fra Filippo and the Murals for Prato Cathedral.” _ Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz_ 19 (1975): 8.

1976

  • Boskovits, Miklós. "Appunti sull' Angelico." Paragone 27, no. 313 (1976): 45-46.

  • Hatfield, Rab. Botticelli’s Uffizi “Adoration”: A study in pictorial content. Princeton, 1976: 62-63, 106-107.

  • Cardile, Paul Julius. “Fra Angelico and his workshop at San Domenico (1420-1435): The Development of his Style and the Formation of his Workshop.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1976: 357-358, cat. xix.

  • Robertson, Giles. “Review of John Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico (1974).” The Burlington Magazine 118 (August 1976): 604.

1977

  • Levi d'Ancona, Mirella. The Garden of the Renaissance: Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting. Florence, 1977: 99-100.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 20, pl. 2.

  • Lightbown, Ronald. Botticelli: Life and Work. 2 vols. Berkeley, CA, 1978: 1:21, 34; 2:25-26.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:10-13; 2:pl. 7, 7B,C,D.

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 19, pl. 3.

1980

  • Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Galleria di Washington.” Critica d’Arte 45, nos. 154-156 (1980): 217, fig. 16.

  • Wohl, Hellmut. The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano. Oxford, 1980: 217, 218, repro.

1981

  • Ames-Lewis, Francis. “Drapery "Pattern"-Drawings in Ghirlandaio's Workshop and Ghirlandaio's Early Apprenticeship.” The Art Bulletin 63, no. 1 (March 1981): 56 n. 26.

  • Beck, James H. Italian Renaissance Painting. New York, 1981: 120.

  • Rowlands, Eliot W. “Review of Fern Rusk Shapley. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings 1979.” Apollo 144, no. 237 (November 1981): 353.

1982

  • Alsop, Joseph. The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared. Bollingen series 35, no. 27. New York, 1982: 397, 403, fig. 81.

  • Brigstocke, Hugh. "Lord Lindsay as a Collector." Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 64, no. 2 (1982): 302.

  • Ruda, Jeffery. Filippo Lippi Studies: Naturalism, Style, and Iconography in Early Renaissance Art. New York, 1982: 42-77, as by Filippo Lippi with an assistant or follower of Fra Angelico.

  • Fusco, Laurie. “An Unpublished Madonna and Child by Fra Filippo Lippi.” J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 10 (1982): 5 n. 9.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 84, no. 40, color repro.

  • Alce, Venturino. “Cataloghi e indici delle opere del Beato Angelico.” In Beato Angelico. Miscellanea di Studi. Rome, 1984: 358.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 19, repro.

  • Wolk, Linda. "The Pala Baciadonne by Perino del Vaga." Studies in the History of Art 18 (1985): 41, fig. 15.

  • Ford, Brinsley. "Pictures lost to the Nation." NACF Magazine 29 (Christmas 1985): 19, repro. 18.

1986

  • Tozzini Cellai, Valeria. L’arte del Rinascimento: Filippo Lippi. Prato, 1986: 169, no. 42, as by Fra Filippo Lippi and Assistants.

  • Baldini, Umberto. Beato Angelico. Florence, 1986: 273.

  • Frulli, Cristina. “Filippo Lippi.” In Federico Zeri, ed. La pittura in Italia. Il Quattrocento. 2 vols. Milan, 1986: 2:666.

  • Angelini, Alessandro, and Luciano Bellosi, eds. Disegni italiani del tempo di Donatello. Exh. cat. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence 1986: 19, 22.

  • Bellosi, Luciano, and Alessandro Angelini, eds. Sassetta e i pittori toscani tra XIII e XV secolo. Exh. cat. Palazzo Chigi-Saracini, Siena, 1986: 37.

  • Mark, Peter. "Luca della Robbia and Filippo Lippi: Some Stylistic and Chronological Connections." Source: Notes in the History of Art 5, no. 4 (1986): 10-11, fig. 3, as by Filippo Lippi (and Fra Angelico?).

1987

  • Cecchi, Alessandro. “Les cadres ronds de la Renaissance florentine.” Revue de l’Art 76 (1987): 21.

1989

  • Fossi, Gloria. Filippo Lippi. Florence, 1989: 6, 64-68, figs. 45, 46.

  • Lightbown, Ronald. Botticelli: Life and Work. Milan, 1989: 24, 31, 47.

1990

  • Caneva, Caterina. Botticelli: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990: 48.

  • Bellosi, Luciano. “Giovanni di Francesco e l’arte fiorentina di metà Quattrocento.” In Luciano Bellosi, ed. Pittura di luce. Giovanni di Francesco e l’arte fiorentina di metà Quatrocento. Exh. cat. Casa Buonarroti, Florence,1990: 44-45, as by Benozzo Gozzoli and Filippo Lippi.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 6, 189, color repros.

  • Morandotti, Alessandro. "La fortuna collezionistica della pittura gotica e rinascimentale fra Ottocento e Novecento." In Mauro Natale, ed. Pittura italiana dal '300 al '500. Milan, 1991: 43, fig. 16.

  • Cardini, Franco. I Magi di Benozzo a Palazzo Medici. Florence, 1991: 86.

  • Haskell, Francis. “William Coningham and His Collection of Old Masters.” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1063 (1991): 681.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 15, repro.

  • Padoa Rizzo, Anna. Benozzo Gozzoli. Catalogo completo. Florence, 1992: 7, 26, cat. 5, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Petrioli Tofani, Annamaria, ed. Il disegno fiorentino del tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Florence, 1992: 57 n. 57, 144.

  • De Marchi, Andrea. Gentile da Fabriano: Un viaggio nella pittura italiana alla fine del gotico. Milan, 1992: 189 n. 76.

  • Stapleford, Richard. The Age of Lorenzo de' Medici: Patronage and the Arts in Renaissance Florence. A Walking Tour of Italian Painting and Sculpture in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1992: no. 15, repro.

  • Duwe, Gert. Die Anbetung der hl. Drei Könige in der italienischen Kunst des Trecento und Quattrocento. Frankfurt, 1992: 149-155.

  • Lloyd, Christopher. Fra Angelico. London, 1992: 23, 122-123.

  • Pacini, Piero. Review of the exhibition Les tems revient, Florence, 1992. _Antichità Viva_31, no. 2 (1992): 50.

1993

  • Ruda, Jeffrey. Fra Filippo Lippi: Life and Work with a Complete Catalogue. London, 1993: 210-215, 316-324, 437-441, pls. 120, 178-181, 280-285, 287-290, as by Filippo Lippi and an assistant of Fra Angelico, possibly Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 366, fig. 428, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Padoa Rizzo, Anna. “La Cappella dei Magi nell’attività di Benozzo Gozzoli.” In Cristina Acidini Luchinat, ed. Benozzo Gozzoli: La Cappella dei Magi. Milan, 1993: 357.

1994

  • Filippini, Cecilia, and Claudio Cerretelli. I Lippi: a Prato. Prato, 1994: 14-15.

  • Acidini, Cristina. Benozzo Gozzoli. Florence and New York, 1994: 9, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

1995

  • Boskovits, Miklós. “Attorno al Tondo Cook: Precisazioni sul Beato Angelico su Filippo Lippi e altri.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorichen Institutes in Florenz 39, Bd., H. 1 (1995): 33-68, figs. 1, 23, 24, 27, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37.

  • Ames-Lewis, Francis. “Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, and the Early Medici.” In Francis Ames-Lewis, ed. The Medici and Their Artists. London, 1995: 107-108.

1996

  • Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto, Maria Grazia. “I dipinti di Palazzo Medici nell’inventario di Simone di Stagio delle Pozzo: Problemi di committenza e di arredo.” In Toscana al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico: Politica, economia, cultura, arte. Convegno di studi promosso dalle Università di Firenze, Pisa e Siena, 5-8 novembre 1992. 3 vols. Pisa, 1996: 137, 139, pl. 83, as by Filippo Lippi.

  • Ahl, Diane Cole. Benozzo Gozzoli. New Haven, 1996: 264-266, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Rowlands, Eliot W. "Filippo Lippi." In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 19:442.

  • Spike, John T. Fra Angelico. New York, London, and Paris 1996: 251-252, cat. 109.

1997

  • Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. "Christ's Birth Gave Birth to Astounding Images: Gallery Glitters with holy Masterpieces." Washington Times (December 21, 1997): D5, repro.

  • Mannini, Maria Pia, and Marco Fagioli. Filippo Lippi: Catalogo completo. Florence, 1997: 69, 123, cat. 48.

1998

  • Bonsanti, Giorgio. Beato Angelico. Catalogo completo. Florence, 1998: 153, cat. 76, as by Fra Angelico's assistants with Filippo Lippi.

  • Strehlke, Carl Brandon. Angelico. Milan, 1998: 16, 68 n. 12, 116, fig. 17, as by Filippo Lippi with Fra Angelico or Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Capretti, Elena. Botticelli. Florence, 1998: 24, repro.

1999

  • Holmes, Megan. Fra Filippo Lippi, The Carmelite Painter. New Haven and London, 1999: 141-144.

  • Duits, Rembrandt. “Figured Riches: The Value of Gold Brocades in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painting.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 62 (1999): 62

2000

  • Olson, Roberta J. M. The Florentine Tondo. Oxford, 2000: 61, 64-65, 66, fig. 3.1, as by Filippo Lippi and Workshop.

2001

  • Kanter, Laurence. “An Annunciation by Fra Angelico.” In Clay Dean, ed. Rediscovering Fra Angelico: A Fragmentary History. Exh. cat. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 2001: 19, 38 n. 9, as by Filippo Lippi with, probably, Benozzo Gozzoli.

2002

  • Boskovits, Miklós. “La bottega del Beato Angelico tra Firenze e Rome, e la formazione di Benozzo Gozzoli.” In Bruno Toscano and Giovanna Capitelli, eds. Benozzo Gozzoli allievo a Roma, maestro in Umbria. Exh. cat. Chiesa-Museo di San Francesco, Montefalco, 2002: 46, 54 n. 30.

  • Boskovits, Miklós. "Il Beato Angelico e Benozzo Gozzoli: problemi ancora aperti." In Bruno Toscano and Giovanna Capitelli, eds. Benozzo Gozzoli allievo a Roma, maestro in Umbria. Exh. cat. Chiesa-Museo di San Francesco, Montefalco, 2002: 46, 54 n. 30.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 21-30, color repro.

  • Bonsanti, Giorgio. "Beato Angelico e gli inizi di Benozzo." In Enrico Castelnuovo and Alessandro Malquori, eds. Benozzo Gozzoli: Viaggio attraverso un secolo. Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Firenze - Pisa, 8 - 10 gennaio 1998). Pisa, 2003: 60, as by Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli.

  • Secherre, Helene. “The Dubois and Fauchet Collections: The Connoisseurship of Italian Primitives in Paris at the time of the First Empire.” Apollo 157 (2003): 22, fig. 3.

2004

  • Danziger, Elon. "The Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors." The Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (July 2004): 444, 448, 457, repro.

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 20-21, no. 15, color repro.

  • Nuttall, Paula. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500. New Haven and London, 2004: 106.

2005

  • Kanter, Laurence, and Pia Palladino. Fra Angelico. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005: 282-283, fig. 90.

  • Christiansen, Keith, ed. From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005: 208.

  • Rowley, Neville. “Le ambiguità dell’Angelico.” Prospettiva no. 119/120 (July-October 2005): 164 n. 51.

2006

  • Fahy, Everett. "Early Italian paintings in Washington and Philadelphia." The Burlington Magazine 148, no. 1241 (August 2006): 538, as by Benozzo Gozzoli and Filippo Lippi.

2007

  • Sale, J. Russell. "Birds of a feather: the Medici 'Adoration' tondo in Washington." The Burlington Magazine 149 (January 2007): 4-13, repro.

  • Giacomelli, Sara. "Persistenze dell'Angelico nei codici per San Marco." In Magnolia Scudieri and Sara Giacomelli, eds. Fra Giovanni Angelico. Pittore miniatore o miniatore pittore? Exh. cat. Museo di San Marco, Florence, 2007: 144-145, fig. 1.

2010

  • Rowley, Neville. “Pittura di luce: La manière claire dans la peinture du Quattrocento.” Ph.D. Diss., Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2010: 145 n. 549, fig. 22

  • Dumbrowski, Damian. Die religiösen Gemälde Sandro Botticellis: Malerei als pia philosophia. Berlin and Munich, 2010: 93, fig. 37.

2013

  • Campbell, Stephen J. and Michael W. Cole. Italian Renaissance Art. New York, 2013: 248, 249, color fig. 9.19.

2015

  • Hui, Andrew. “The Birth of Ruins in Quattrocento Adoration Paintings.” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 18, no. 2 (September 2015): 334-336, fig. 10.

  • Verdon, Timothy. Beato Angelico. Milan, 2015: 369, fig. 245.

2018

  • Villa, Renzo. Beato Angelico. Pisa, 2018: 260.

2021

  • Nocentini, Serena, and Valentina Zucchi. "Benozzo, pittore fiorentino." In Serena Nocentini and Valentina Zucchi, eds. Benozzo Gozzoli e la Cappella dei Magi. Exh. cat. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, 2021: 16, fig. 2.

  • Debenedetti, Ana. Botticelli: Artist and Designer. London, 2021: 76.

Wikidata ID

Q3531531

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