Adoration of the Magi (Mantegna)

Did You Know?

• Another version of the painting sold for the then record price of $10.5 million in 1985.
• The panel was probably located in the chapel's apse.

History

Scholars generally agree that the three paintings were created during the 1460s for Ludovico III Gonzaga’s private chapel in the Castle of St. George in Mantua, alongside the Death of the Virgin and Christ Bearing the Soul of the Virgin. Two letters from Mantegna to Ludovico, dated April 1464, and a mention by Vasari—who described a painting in the Mantua castle chapel featuring small but highly refined figures—support this. However, a different view comes from scholar Fiocco, who contends there is no proof the works traveled from Mantua to Florence and suggests they were instead made in Tuscany during Mantegna’s visits there in 1466 and 1467. Stylistic analysis, though, connects the piece more closely to Mantegna’s final years in Padua, which ended in 1459, rather than to his later mature period in Mantua.

The earliest certain record of the three paintings appears in 1587, when they were discovered cut apart in Valle Muggia near Pistoia among the possessions of Don Antonio de’ Medici. They were later inherited and, by 1632, entered the collection of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where the Adoration was mistakenly attributed to Botticelli. Starting in 1827, the three works were displayed together, fitted with a gilded neo-Renaissance intaglio frame that adjusted for the different sizes of the central panel and the side panels.

Most modern critics point out notable differences among the three pieces—in their form, format, setting, and quality—especially between the Circumcision and the other two. Roberto Longhi questioned whether they were ever intended as a single unified triptych. Instead, he proposed they originally came from separate spots within the same chapel, much like the Death of the Virgin and Christ Bearing the Soul of the Virgin. According to Longhi, the Circumcision replaced the Death of the Virgin when the plan was narrowed to focus exclusively on scenes from Christ’s life.