Skip to main content

Adoration of the Magi

Artist/Maker (Italian, active 1394–1424)
Dateca. 1405
MediumTempera on panel
DimensionsImage: 11 1/8 × 19 11/16 in. (28.3 × 50 cm)
Overall: 12 7/16 × 20 5/8 in. (31.6 × 52.4 cm)
Frame: 16 7/8 × 25 1/4 × 2 11/16 in. (42.9 × 64.1 × 6.8 cm)
Credit LineR. T. Miller Jr. Fund
Object number1943.118
Status
On view
More Information
Mariotto di Nardo assumed the role of one of the principal painters of Florence following the death of Agnolo Gaddi in 1396, and received many prestigious commissions in Florence and the surrounding area. To manage the demands of his patrons, he maintained a large workshop with several assistants. The Adoration is one of the artist's most sophisticated and accomplished works, and may have been produced with the assistance of the premier figural sculptors of the day, Lorenzo Ghiberti. Particularly impressive about this work is the adventurous spatial construction and figural contrapposti, as well as the subtle light effects. Certainly the painting is indebted to Ghiberti's bronze relief of the same subject on the north door of the Baptistry in Florence.
Exhibition History
The Story of Christ in Art: Paintings, Graphic Works, Textiles and Sculpture from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH ( 1957-08 - 1957-09 )
Italian Paintings, XIV and XV Century
  • Nicholas Acquavella, New York (April 22, 1940 - May 22, 1940 )
Paintings of the Adoration of the Magi
  • Zanesville Art Institute, Zanesville, OH (December 1, 1948 - December 31, 1948 )
Paintings and Drawings from Five Centuries: Collection Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (February 3, 1954 - February 21, 1954 )
An Exhibition of Medieval Art
  • The William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (April 28, 1961 - May 20, 1961 )
Seven Hundred Years of Western Art
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Religion, Ritual and Performance in the Renaissance
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 28, 2012 - June 30, 2013 )
Collections
  • European
  • On View