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Start with the old king kneeling at the Child’s feet, move through the younger kings to the crowd of riders, then look up to the ox and ass in the cave.
The Gospel of Matthew tells of Magi who followed a star to the newborn Christ and brought him gifts. The Cleveland Museum of Art explains that painters of the 1400s used the kings’ followers to show the splendor of court life, and Giovanni di Paolo, a leading painter in Siena, packs the right side with courtiers, horses and a hound.
tempera and gold on wood panel · Framed: 52.5 x 59 x 7.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Late Gothic and Early Renaissance
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Adoration of the Magi
- Artist
- Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, c. 1403–1482)
- Date
- 1440–45
- Medium
- tempera and gold on wood panel
- Dimensions
- Framed: 52.5 x 59 x 7.5 cm (20 11/16 x 23 1/4 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 38.4 x 44.3 cm (15 1/8 x 17 7/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1398–1482
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.