The Adoration of the Magi
Raffaello Botticini·c. 1495
Historical Context
Raffaello Botticini painted this Adoration of the Magi around 1495, a popular devotional subject that allowed Florentine painters to display both religious narrative and contemporary portraiture. Botticini was the son of the more famous Francesco Botticini and worked in the late Quattrocento Florentine tradition. The Adoration of the Magi, with its procession of exotic kings, was among the most frequently commissioned subjects in Renaissance Florence.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on panel demonstrates the clear, precise Florentine technique with bright, luminous colors and careful figure modeling. The processional composition and the detailed landscape background follow established Florentine conventions for the Epiphany subject.
Provenance
Possibly Alexander Barker (died 1874), London [according to catalogue of the Leyland sale, though it is not the one described in Gustave Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857, p. 71 as Dello Fiorentino (?), nor the tondo attributed to Filippo Lippi in the Barker sale, June 19, 1879, no. 489]. Frederick Richards Leyland, London, by 1892, as Filippino Lippi [Child 1892 illustrates the painting in his salon]; sold, Christie’s, London, May 28, 1892, lot 97, to Jeffrey [buyer listed in annotated catalogue at the Getty Research Center]. Emile Gavet, Paris, by 1894 [date of sale given in registrar’s record]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, 1894; by descent to his wife Carrie Hutchinson Ryerson (1859–1937), Chicago, 1932 [Last Will and Testament of Martin A. Ryerson, Died August 11, 1932, copy in Institutional Archives, Art Institute of Chicago]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1937.
