Adoration of the Magi

The Adoration of the Magi, painted around 1470 and one of Perugino's earliest surviving works, was created while he was still developing his mature style under the influence of Florentine and Umbrian precedents. The subject of the Three Kings paying homage to the infant Christ was among the most popular subjects in Italian Renaissance painting, partly because it allowed artists to display elaborate costume, procession, and landscape — all the elements of visual narrative that demonstrated painterly skill. Perugino's early version reveals his formation within the Umbrian tradition while showing the beginnings of the graceful figure style and luminous landscape backgrounds that would define his mature work in the 1480s and 1490s.

The early work shows Perugino developing the spatial clarity and harmonious composition that would define his mature style. The figures are arranged with care, though without the full fluency of his later compositions.