The Adoration of the Magi
Sandro Botticelli·c. 1478/1482
Historical Context
Correggio's Madonna and Child (c. 1520–22) at the Uffizi represents his mature devotional style at its most characteristic: the figures rendered in soft, warm light with barely visible contours dissolving into the atmospheric background. By the early 1520s Correggio had created a devotional language that was wholly his own, departing from both Florentine and Venetian conventions while synthesizing their best qualities. The Madonna's expression — tender, thoughtful, slightly melancholy with foreknowledge of the Passion — and the Christ Child's animated response create an image of psychological depth beneath the surface beauty. Correggio's Madonnas were among the most copied and most sought-after images in European painting for two centuries after his death.
Technical Analysis
Botticelli's mixed tempera and oil technique on poplar panel achieves rich, luminous color and refined detail. The composition manages a complex crowd scene with characteristic grace, using flowing lines and rhythmic groupings. The architectural ruins and landscape provide spatial depth while the central group maintains devotional focus.
Provenance
Said to have been acquired from a private collection in Rome by the engraver Peralli.[1] Dominique Vivant Denon [1747-1825], Paris;[2] sold 1808 to Czar Alexander I of Russia, [1777-1825], Saint Petersburg; Imperial Hermitage Gallery, Saint Petersburg;[3] purchased January 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[4] deeded 5 June 1931 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[5] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Information given by E. Brüningk and Andrei Somov, _Ermitage Impérial. Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux. Les Écoles d'Italie et d'Espagne_, 3rd ed., Saint Petersburg, 1891: 73: "d'après le témoignage du baron Vivant Denon." No reference to an engraver named Peralli could be found in any of the generally used art dictionaries. It is know, however, that Botticelli's small panel _St. Augustine in His Study_ (no. 1473 in the Uffizi in Florence), was acquired in 1779 through Piero Pieralli (see John Fleming, "The Hugfords in Florence," _The Connoisseur_ 136 [1955]: 206). On Denon see the following note. [2] Actually Brüningk and Somov 1891: 73 say only that the painting was acquired "par l'entremise" ("through the intermediation") of Denon. It is quite possible, however, that Denon--who, apart from being the creator of the Musée Napoleon, also had a very large private collection of paintings, art objects, and antiquities of his own (see Jean Chatelain, _Dominique Vivant Denon et le Louvre de Napoleon_, Paris, 1973: 260)--was already in possession of _The Adoration of the Magi_ when in 1808 he was entrusted with augmenting the Russian Imperial collections (see Vladimir Levinson-Lessing, _Istoria kartinskoi galerei Ermitaga, 1764-1917_, Leningrad, 1985: 138). [3] The list of abbreviations for Brüiningk and Somov (1891: xxxv) and Andrei Ivanovich Somov (_Ermitage Impérial. Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux. Les Écoles d'Italie et d'Espagne_, 2nd ed., Saint Petersburg, 1899 [3rd ed., 1909]: xxxiv) states that the sign "A," included in the entry relative to the NGA painting, means it was acquired by Czar Paul I (1754-1801). Yet this identification is obviously an error, since besides the fact that Paul I was notoriously un-interested in art collecting, the very date of the acquisition of _The Adoration of the Magi_ for the Hermitage, seven years after the death of Paul I, proves that the painting entered the Imperial collection by request of his successor. [4] See note 5. According to John Walker, _Self-Portrait with Donors_, Washington, D.C., 1974: 116, Matthiessen announced to his associates on 9 February 1931 that he had succeeded in buying _The Adoration of the Magi_. Art periodicals had begun to divulge the information by October 1931 ("Hermitage Art Reported Sold to A.W. Mellon," _Art News_ 30 [17 October 1931]: 3, 13, which quotes an article that appeared earlier that month in _The New York Herald Tribune_; see also "Editorial: Breaking up the Hermitage," _The Burlington Magazine_ 63, no. 365 [August 1933]: 53, but the acquisition was officially announced only in 1935 ("Mellon Holdings are Announced by Knoedler & Co.," _Art News_ 33, no. 21 [23 February 1935]: 3-5; "Rundschau. Amerika," _Pantheon_ [April 1935]: 150). [5] The Mellon purchase date and the date deeded to the Mellon Trust are according to Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives). In 2012 The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, acquired the M. Knoedler & Co. records (accession number 2012.M.54), and in 2013 processed portions of the archive were first made publicly available. An entry from a January 1931 Knoedler sales book confirms the sale to Mellon (on-line illustration of the sales book page, in Karen Meyer-Roux, "Treasures from the Vault: Knoedler, Mellon, and an Unlikely Sale," _The Getty Iris_ [http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/author/kmeyerroux/], 30 July 2013).
