Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo)

The Adoration of the Magi from the East is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 ). The unfinished work is dated around 1481 and is located in the inventory of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The work

The painting was intended as an altarpiece for the monastery of San Donato in Scopeto. The monastery was located near the city of Florence, in front of the Porta Romana. Why Leonardo, who went from Florence to Milan in 1482, has not completed the image is not known. 1496 the monks of San Donate then Filippino Lippi placed an order for an altarpiece of the same subject. Lippi's picture, which is also kept in the Uffizi, leans into the composition close to Leonardo's invention of image.

Get is an almost monochrome oil drawing in format 246.7 × 246.5 cm, with some detail above, in some cases only roughly sketched figures, architectural elements and some trees fas fully executed. In addition, there are several sheets with preparatory studies.

The representation of the Adoration of the Magi is a traditional subject of Christian painting. The special feature of the composition of Leonardo is mainly the new construction. Before the kings and shepherds were arranged in a horizontal alignment to each other. Leonardo grouped the figures to the Madonna around its center. The apparent arbitrariness of the distribution is a balance in the strict triangular composition in which the main characters are embedded. Faces and gestures convey impressive reality of the miracle that presents itself to their eyes.

Charles Nicholl suspected that the young Leonardo da Vinci at the lower right margin of the painting represented itself.

• Leonardo's studies of the Adoration of the Magi from the East