Procession of the Magi

Bernardo Parentino was a Paduan painter of the late fifteenth century associated with the circle of Andrea Mantegna, whose archaeological approach to antiquity and love of relief-like figure compositions he absorbed and adapted into his own distinctive manner. This Procession of the Magi, dated ca. 1450–1500, belongs to the tradition of the Adoration narrative extended into a procession scene — the Magi and their elaborate retinues winding through a landscape toward the Nativity. The subject allowed painters to display their skills at rendering exotic costume, architecture, landscape, and the ceremonial splendour of distant courts. Parentino's version reflects the Paduan enthusiasm for classical antiquity: ancient architectural fragments appear as scenery, and the figures' costumes blend real exotic dress with the artist's imagination of the ancient East.

The composition is organised as a continuous frieze-like procession across the picture space — a format indebted to ancient Roman relief sculpture that Mantegna had established as the defining Paduan compositional type. Precise linear drawing in the figures and buildings contrasts with a more atmospheric treatment of the distant landscape.