The Adoration of the Magi
c. 1478–1482 · Tempera and oil on poplar panel · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445–1510)
- Year
- c. 1478–1482
- Medium
- Tempera and oil on poplar panel
- Original size
- 68 × 102 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Renaissance
The Virgin and Child sit at the centre under a timber roof built into the ruins of a classical building, with Joseph beside them, while the three Magi kneel and a crowded retinue with horses gathers on either side against an open green landscape. Botticelli painted this panel in about 1478–1482, one of several versions of the subject he made in Florence; the ruined building, an established image of the old pagan world giving way to the new, frames the stable. Nothing is known of the original owner. By the early nineteenth century it belonged to Dominique Vivant Denon, director of Napoleon's museum in Paris, and through his intervention it was sold in 1808 to Tsar Alexander I for the Imperial Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. The Soviet government sold it in January 1931 to Andrew W. Mellon, who gave it with the rest of his founding collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1937.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
The Holy Family under a ruined temple with a timber roof, a colourful crowd of kings and riders in pink, red and blue across a green landscape, for a dining room or living room at 24×36 in natural wood. A cream or soft sage wall; it pairs with Primavera.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Renaissance painting
- Era
- 15th century (c. 1478–1482)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- living room, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Adoration of the Magi in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Adoration of the Magi painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
