Adoration of the Magi (Filippino Lippi)

Adoration of the Magi
Inscription on back: Filippus me pinsit de Lipis florentinus addi 29 di marzo 1496
Artist	Filippino Lippi
Year	1496
Medium	Tempera grassa on wood
Dimensions	258 cm × 243 cm (102 in × 96 in)
Location	The Uffizi
Accession	1890 n. 1566
Website	https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/adoration-of-the-magi-filippino-lippi

The Adoration of the Magi is a panel painting in tempera by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippino Lippi, of the very common subject of the Adoration of the Magi, signed and dated 1496.^[1] It is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.^[1]

The panel was painted for the monastery of San Donato in Scopeto (San Donato in Scopeto [it]), as a substitution for the one commissioned in 1481 from Leonardo da Vinci, who left it unfinished. In 1529 it was acquired by Cardinal Carlo de' Medici and in 1666 it became part of the Uffizi collection, left to the city by the last of the Medicis.^[1]

Filippino Lippi followed Leonardo's setting, in particular in the central part of the work. Much of its inspiration was clearly derived from Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, also in the Uffizi: this is evident in the disposition of the characters on the two sides, with the Holy Family portrayed in the centre under. Similarly to Botticelli's work, Filippino also portrayed numerous members of the Medici cadet line, who had adhered to the Savonarolian Republic in the period in which the work was executed. On the left, kneeling in a luxurious, fur-lined yellow robe and holding an astrolabe, is Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who had died 20 years before.^[1][2][3] Behind him, standing, are his two sons Giovanni, holding a goblet, and Lorenzo, from whom a page is removing a crown.

The general style is that of Filippino's late career, characterized by a greater care to details and by a nervous rhythm in the forms, influenced by the knowledge of foreign painting schools (as also in the landscape of the background). The painting is set in a country landscape, in front of a stable over which the Star of Bethlehem, that guided the Three Magi, is shining. In the background, there are scenes of their journey, from the sighting of the star to their passage via Herod's palace.^[2]