Document 15.2: Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1475
Sandro Botticelli’s The Adoration of the Magi, ostensibly a depiction of the Virgin Mary’s presentation of Jesus to the three magi shortly after his birth, bears a closer resemblance to a Renaissance court than to a Bethlehem manger. Mary occupies the central position, but Cosimo de’ Medici, in the guise of the kneeling magus, is almost as prominent, certainly more prominent than Joseph who lounges in the shadows at the back of the scene. Below Cosimo and Mary, a crowd made up of members of the Medici family and their supporters looks on, talking with each other and waiting their turn for attention, much as they would in the audience chamber of a Medici residence. The painting was commissioned by Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama, a Florentine banker and supporter of the Medici. As you examine the painting, ask yourself why he might have chosen to commission a painting of this particular subject. What opportunities did The Adoration of the Magi present to flatter the Medici and to reinforce del Lama’s relationship with his social and political superiors?
Questions to Consider
- Del Lama appears in the painting as the elderly man with white hair and a light blue gown on the right. What might Botticelli’s depiction of him have been meant to suggest about del Lama’s place in the Medici political and social hierarchy? What should we make of the fact that his head is turned to face the viewer?
- At the time the painting was commissioned, the three senior Medici, playing the roles of the Magi, were all dead, and Lorenzo de’ Medici had been head of the family for six years. Given this, how should we interpret Botticelli’s choice to place Lorenzo (the black-
haired youth wearing a black gown with red trim on the right) near the edge of the painting? How did Botticelli give him prominence in the painting without placing him at its center?