The Adoration of the Magi: Six Paintings of the Three Kings

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The Adoration of the Magi is the Gospel scene in which three kings from the East bring gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus, traditionally remembered on 6 January. Painters from Gentile da Fabriano (1423) to Peter Paul Rubens (1628-29) used it to show off wealth, portraits and exotic detail. These six versions are the ones worth knowing.

Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, about 300 x 282 cm. Held in a Florence collection.

Why did painters love the Adoration of the Magi?

Because it let them paint everything at once. The story is short in the Gospel of Matthew: wise men follow a star, offer three gifts and go home by another road. Painters filled the gaps with horses, camels, hunting leopards, crowns, brocade and portraits of the people who paid for the picture. Few other subjects let an artist show so much skill in one panel.

1. Gentile da Fabriano, 1423: the gold-leaf procession

Gentile da Fabriano signed and dated this panel in May 1423 for the Florentine banker Palla Strozzi, who placed it in the sacristy of the church of Santa Trinita. It is the high point of the International Gothic style: raised, gilded stucco for the crowns and harnesses, real gold leaf, and a long retinue of courtiers, grooms, horses, monkeys and leopards winding in from the upper left.

Look at the kneeling king in the centre. His robe is a pattern of gold and red, and the spurs on his feet are modelled in relief. Within two years, Florence would turn to the sober geometry of Masaccio, which makes this picture the last great flourish of an older court taste.

2. Sandro Botticelli, c.1475-76: a Medici family portrait

Botticelli's version, painted for the banker Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama for Santa Maria Novella, is a tempera on panel of about 111 x 134 cm. Tradition identifies several of the onlookers as members of the Medici circle, with the eldest king kneeling at the Virgin's feet as a likeness of Cosimo the Elder. The figure in the yellow cloak at the right edge, the only one staring out of the picture, is traditionally read as Botticelli himself.

For more on the painter, read Botticelli Beyond Primavera, which covers the mystic Nativity and the Birth of Venus.

3. Leonardo da Vinci, 1481-82: the unfinished crowd

The Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto outside Florence ordered this altarpiece from Leonardo in March 1481. He left for Milan around 1482 with the panel still in brown underpainting, about 246 x 243 cm. That is why it looks like a drawing: Mary sits at the centre, a swirl of onlookers surges around her, and in the background there are ruined arches and horsemen fighting. The monks gave the commission to Filippino Lippi, whose finished version of 1496 now hangs near it in the Uffizi.

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4. Albrecht Dürer, 1504: a Northern version with a Black king

Dürer painted this oil panel in Nuremberg in 1504 for Frederick the Wise of Saxony, who hung it in his Castle Church at Wittenberg. It measures about 100 x 114 cm. The architecture is a ruined Roman building, the Virgin's pale blue gown is painted with the crisp detail of a woodcut, and the third king, Balthazar, is shown as a Black African man in a rich green and gold costume. That became a standard part of the story after the fifteenth century, and Dürer treats the figure with unusual dignity. It is now in the Uffizi.

5. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563: a snowfall at the stable

Bruegel's Adoration of the Kings in the Snow is a small oil on panel of about 35 x 55 cm, painted in 1563. It is a winter village scene in which the Holy Family is almost lost: a ragged hut at the left, a crowd of soldiers and villagers, and large flakes of snow falling across the whole panel. The oldest of the three kings kneels in the middle, but the eye goes first to the weather.

Compare it with Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, where winter becomes the subject itself. Bruegel painted another Adoration in 1564, now in London, but the snow version is the one collectors remember. It is held in a Winterthur collection.

6. Peter Paul Rubens, 1609 and 1628-29: the baroque spectacle

Rubens painted the first Adoration of the Magi for Antwerp's town hall in 1609. It was reworked and enlarged in 1628-29, when he added strips of canvas to the top and sides, and it now measures about 346 x 488 cm. It is a baroque stage: torches, armour, camels, a huge throng and a mounted knight at the right edge in a gold chain who is traditionally taken to be the painter himself. It hangs in the Prado in Madrid.

What do these six paintings have in common?

All six use the same trick: a quiet central family and a loud crowd. The centre stays almost still, and the artist's invention goes into the edges. If you are choosing one for a wall, Gentile suits a gold, warm room, Bruegel suits a pale winter room, and Botticelli suits a library or dining room. For more Italian context, start with The Italian Renaissance in Ten Artists.

Zocine Art Design is an independent studio that prints classic paintings as wall art.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Adoration of the Magi?

It is the Gospel scene in which three wise men from the East present gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus. Christians remember it on Epiphany, 6 January.

Who painted the most famous Adoration of the Magi?

Gentile da Fabriano (1423), Botticelli (c.1475-76), Leonardo da Vinci (1481-82, unfinished), Albrecht Dürer (1504), Bruegel (1563) and Rubens (1609, reworked 1628-29) are the best-known painters of the subject.

Why are the three kings different ages and races in paintings?

Medieval and Renaissance painters showed the three Magi as an old man, a middle-aged man and a youth, and later as men from different continents, to suggest that the whole world came to honour the child.