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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.

4 min read
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.
Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1440/1460, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.2

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed standing in front of Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s The Adoration of the Magi. The giant circular painting is full of details that might distract your eye from the main event: the story from the Christian Bible in which the Three Kings (magi) meet the Virgin Mary, Christ Child, and Joseph.

First there are the animals: a donkey, cow, horses, peacock, pheasant, and a peculiar-looking white dog. Then there’s the procession of figures winding around the landscape. More than 100 people fill the painting, each with their own expression and dress.

Join us on a journey through some of the most important and unusual details in the painting. Discover a hidden couple of camels and find the fruit that may remind you of a popular arcade game.

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.
Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1440/1460, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.2

Who was it made for?

We believe that the Medici family, who ruled Florence, paid for this painting. The Medici were part of a lay confraternity—a religious organization whose members weren’t clergy—called the Compagnia de’ Magi. This group organized an annual festival celebrating Epiphany, the moment when the North Star led the Three Kings to the Christ Child. Great patrons of art, the Medici paid for several paintings that show this scene.

Cosimo de’ Medici probably commissioned Fra Angelico to make this one. The artist was a Dominican friar (monk) who lived in Florence’s church of San Marco. He likely began the painting and laid out its design. After Angelico died in 1455, his rival Fra Filippo Lippi probably completed it.

What is going on?

What about the peacock on the roof?

At first glance, the stone wall and thatched roof structure might have suggested that this is a Nativity scene (depicting the birth of Christ). But artists in the Italian Renaissance sometimes merged the imagery of the Nativity and Adoration, straying from the biblical text.

 

This painting is believed to be the one recorded in a 1492 inventory of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s estate. The inventory lists it as the most valuable painting in his collection. Today, it is one of the greatest Florentine Renaissance paintings in the world.

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