From the Uffizi, Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi travels to Naples

TheAdoration of the Magi, Botticelli ’s masterpiece from the Uffizi Galleries, will go on a trip to Naples: in fact, the painting will be on display from Nov. 30, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024, at the Complesso Monumentale Donnaregina - Museo Diocesano in Naples.

Painted between 1470 and 1475, theAdoration of the Magi was commissioned by Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama, a businessman who was a matchmaker for the Cambio guild. In 1469 he founded a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella dedicated to the Magi and Epiphany. The choice of the title is to be found in the name of the patron, Gaspar, as one of the three Magi. But at the same time, the title was also a tribute to the Medici, members of the Company of the Magi and protagonists of the cavalcade that paraded through Florence for Epiphany.

Indeed, the Gospel theme was transformed by Botticelli into a parade of figures from Florentine society during the years of the Medici family’s rise to power.

The painting surmounted the altar of the Del Lama chapel, set within a sumptuous sculptural frame. The panel, admired for the variety of the figures’ poses and the painter’s extraordinary portraiture skills, gave Botticelli great fame. The commissioner, however, was convicted of fraud in 1476, fell into disgrace and died a few years later. The chapel he founded, which passed to others, was decommissioned in the third quarter of the 16th century, and the painting passed into Medici ownership, as it appears in 1587 in the collection of Don Antonio (1576-1621), son of Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici and his second wife Bianca Cappello.

TheAdoration has been on display in the Uffizi since 1796, after being found in the Medici villa of Poggio Imperiale in Florence.

Image: Alessandro Filipepi known as Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi (1470-1475; tempera grassa on panel; 111 x 137 cm; Florence, Uffizi)

From the Uffizi, Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi travels to Naples

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