Artwork

This morning I went to the Uffizi Gallery because I had to study some famous paintings. My teacher asked me to introduce The Adoration of Magi by Botticelli, and it was very difficult for me. So I would like to try again and write something about it.

The subject is related to the birth of Jesus and the visit by the three men called Magi who carried with them presents for the child.

This painting is a very important work because it's not a typical composition, in which people come from one side and "walk" up to the other side where the cabin is. In this case the hut is exactly in the middle of the representation and it hosts the Holy Family; the attention to the most important characters is underlined by the position of the people who are attending the scene, they're divided into two lines that ideally meet precisely on the Baby.

The very great use of perspective is underlined also by the fact that Botticelli put the cabin on a higher level than the ground.

This painting is also important because the Medici family is represented, in fact we can observe Cosimo Il Vecchio at the feet of the Baby and his sons. Probably the one with dark cloak on the right side is Lorenzo il Magnifico, but he wasn't the master of Florentine's Signoria yet.

It was commissioned by Guaspare del Lama, a supporter of the Medici family for his chapel in Santa Maria Novella church. The fact that a man paid an artist for a work representing the most important family in Florence in 1400, even if it was intended for his own chapel, gives us an idea of Medici's power.