Go behind the scenes in Conservation with Restorer Jill Dunkerton and Conservator Britta New as they remove the frame from Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi's 'Adoration of the Kings'.
Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, 'Adoration of the Kings', about 1470
About the work
Overview
Images showing the Adoration of the Kings were particularly important in Florence, where the citizens celebrated Epiphany – the feast which commemorated the event – with costumed parades. The shape and scale of this picture suggest that it was made as part of a piece of furniture.
The vast entourage of the kings, including horses in decorated harnesses, is separated from the area occupied by the holy family (Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph) by a wall with only a narrow opening. Two of the kings kneel in front of Christ; the one at the front is about to kiss his foot in homage.
Both Botticelli and Filippino worked on this picture. Botticelli was responsible for the large crowd to the left of the painting while Filippino’s starker, more elongated style of figure painting is seen in the group in the central foreground, which includes a kneeling man and the slightly bowing figure adjusting his right sleeve.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Adoration of the Kings
- Artist
- Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi
- Artist dates
- about 1445 - 1510; about 1457 - 1504
- Date made
- about 1470
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 50.2 × 135.9 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1857
- Inventory number
- NG592
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 21st-century Replica Frame
Provenance
In the collection of the Marchese Ippolito Orlandini at Florence. In the Lombardi-Baldi Collection at Florence by 1845. Purchased with other pictures from Lombardi and Baldi, Florence, 1857. Cleaned Pictures Exhibition at the National Gallery, 1947/8 (No. 27).
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1849F. Fantozzi, Nuova guida ovvero descrizione storico-artistico-critica della città e contorni di Firenze, Florence 1849
-
1883G. Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries, London 1883
-
1883J.P. Richter, Italian Art in the National Gallery, London 1883
-
1893H.C. Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli, Munich 1893
-
1903J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
-
1908H. Horne, Allessandro Filipepi, Commonly Called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence, London 1908
-
1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
-
1931C. Gamba, 'Opere giovanili del Botticelli', Bollettino d'arte, XXV, 1931, pp. 493-504
-
1936C. Gamba, Botticelli, Milan 1936
-
1938J. Mesnil, Botticelli, Paris 1938
-
1942S. Bettini, Botticelli, Bergamo 1942
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1953G. Robertson, 'The National Gallery Catalogue of Early Italian Schools', The Burlington Magazine, XCV/598, 1953
-
1955H. Ruhemann, 'Technical Analysis of an Early Painting by Botticelli', Studies in Conservation, II, 1955, pp. 17-40
-
1957C. Brandi, Saggi su Filippino Lippi, Florence 1957
-
1957E. Tietze-Conrat, Dwarfs and Jesters in Art, London 1957
-
1958R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura del Botticelli, Milan 1958
-
1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
-
1962R. Salvini, 'Note sul Botticelli', in V. Martinelli and F.M. Aliberti Gaudioso (eds), Scritti di Storia dell'arte in onore di Mario Salmi, Rome 1962, vol. 2, pp. 299-328
-
1970R. Hatfield, 'The compagnia de Magi', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXIII, 1970, pp. 107-61
-
1974G. Panhans, 'Florentiner Maler verarbeiten ein eyckisches Bild', Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, XXVII, 1974, pp. 188-98
-
1976R. Hatfield, Botticelli's Uffizi 'Adoration': A Study in Pictorial Content, Princeton 1976
-
1978R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, London 1978
-
1981M. Lisner, 'Leonardos Anbetung der Könige: Zum Sinngehalt und zur Komposition', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, XLIV, 1981, pp. 201-42
-
1984R. Salvini, Banchieri fiorentini e pittori di Fiandra, Modena 1984
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
1989R. Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work, 2nd edn, London 1989
-
1990C. Caneva, Botticelli: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1990
-
1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
-
1991D. Thiébaut, Botticelli, Paris 1991
-
1992A. Enderle, Kleine Menschen - große Kunst. Kleinwuchs aus künstlerischer und medizinischer Sicht, Hamm 1992
-
1992M.B. Hall, Colour and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, Cambridge 1992
-
1992P. Ventrone, Le tems revient: L tempo si rinuova: Feste e spettacoli nelle Firenze di Lorenzo il Magnifico (exh. cat. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, 8 April - 30 June 1990), Florence 1992
-
1993F. Cardini, La stella e i re. Mito e storia dei Magi, Florence 1993
-
1993J. Poeschke, Italienische Frührenaissance und nordeuropäisches Spätmittelalter, Munich 1993
-
1996L. Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern Oblivion, 2nd edn, Chicago 1996
-
1997G.R. Goldner et al., The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and his Circle (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 28 October 1997 - 11 January 1998), New York 1997
-
1998R. Cassanelli, La bottega dell'artista: Tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Milan 1998
-
1998M.W. Kwakkelstein, 'Botticelli, Leonardo and a Morris Dance', Print Quarterly, XV/1, 1998, pp. 3-14
-
1999G. Perry and C. Cunningham (eds), Academies, Museums and Canons of Art, London 1999
-
1999P.L. Rubin and A. Wright, Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 20 October 1999 - 19 January 2000), London 1999
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2002D. Bomford et al., Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 October 2002 - 16 February 2003), London 2002
-
2004P. Nuttall, From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500, New Haven 2004
-
2004P. Zambrano and J.K. Nelson, Filippino Lippi, Milan 2004
-
2005A. Cecchi, Botticelli, Milan 2005
-
2006H. Körner, Botticelli, Cologne 2006
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
More works by Sandro Botticelli
(Showing 6 of 14 works)
The infant Christ reaches up towards the Virgin Mary, oblivious of his visitors – the Three Kings on the left and the shepherds on the right. The golden dome of heaven has opened up and is circled by 12 angels holding olive branches entwined with scrolls and hung with crowns. In the foreground, t...
Not on display
This painting was made as part of a group of four works that tell the story of the life of Florence’s patron saint, Zenobius; it is the first of the series. It shows four scenes of his early life as a Christian, from his rejection of marriage to his ordination as Bishop of Florence.It can be read...
Not on display
This apparently simple portrait of a young man was revolutionary in Italian painting. Until this moment, artists painted people either in profile view, so only half their face was visible, or by turning them three-quarters to face the viewer.Here, Botticelli paints the boy head on, mapping his wh...
Not on display
Saint Francis stands on a marble ledge against a golden background. He embraces a Crucifix and gazes compassionately at the tiny figure of the crucified Christ. If you look closely you can see bright red blood on Christ’s feet and his white loin cloth, where it has dripped from the wound in his s...
Not on display
Botticelli painted at least six scenes of the Adoration of the Kings. This, one of his most expansive and ambitious, is painted in a circular format called a tondo. The figures and animals in the outer circle face inwards to pay respect to the Christ Child, inviting the viewer to do the same. Bo...
Not on display
This is the second panel in a series of four paintings that tell the story of Florence’s patron saint, Zenobius. Botticelli shows three of the saint’s miracles set in the streets of Florence. In the first scene, on the far left, he shows the saint – who was the bishop of Florence – dressed in a b...
Not on display
Venus, the goddess of love, looks over at her lover Mars. She is alert and dignified, while he – the god of war – is utterly lost in sleep. He doesn‘t even notice the chubby satyr (half child, half goat) blowing a conch shell in his ear.This picture was probably ordered to celebrate a marriage, a...
Not on display
Follower of Sandro Botticelli
Portraits like this – of idealised women, seen in profile – were popular in fifteenth-century Florence. This picture is not by Botticelli but by his workshop, which was one of many that produced them. The women usually have fair hair, pale skin and rosy lips, as this was thought to be the most be...
Not on display
Follower of Sandro Botticelli
The dark background and absence of any furnishings focus attention on the Virgin Mary, who makes direct eye contact with the viewer. She stands underneath an open curtain, holding her infant son as if to prevent him from falling from the narrow ledge in the foreground. A transparent veil does lit...
Not on display
Workshop of Sandro Botticelli
The Virgin Mary sits in the corner of a simple room, the Christ Child on her lap. She holds him gently with both hands as he presses his cheek to hers and reaches for her breast. The gauzy shirt he wears contrasts with the layers of veils and garments covering his mother.Light streaming through t...
Not on display
Workshop of Sandro Botticelli
The Virgin Mary stands with her infant son, Christ, in the corner of a large but sparsely decorated room. He is balanced on a small table, the only piece of furniture, but is dangerously close to its edge; a closed book further restricts the space available to him. The Virgin uses both hands to s...
Not on display
Workshop of Sandro Botticelli
Restored in 2018–19, this is one of the more significant paintings of the Virgin Mary to survive from the workshop of the Florentine Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. The exposed breast with which the Virgin Mary is nourishing her infant son, the Christ Child, is central to the design of the...
Not on display
Workshop of Sandro Botticelli
The Virgin Mary sits on a stepped bench in front of a bed of roses, the infant Christ resting on her lap. He hangs on to his mother’s veil, raising his other hand in a gesture of greeting. Both figures make direct eye contact with the viewer, while an angel to either side holds a jewelled crown o...
Not on display
Workshop of Sandro Botticelli
The Virgin Mary kneels, her hands clasped in prayer. Her downward gaze meets that of her infant son, Christ, who is lying on the edge of her blue cloak, leaning against a bundle of straw. Saint John the Baptist, Christ’s cousin, looks down at him from behind. The scroll he holds bears a Latin ins...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 14 works
More works by Filippino Lippi
This painting is a damaged fragment of a larger composition by the Florentine painter Filippino Lippi. The original appearance of the complete picture may be echoed in a copy that survives in a private collection, which shows the Virgin Mary and infant Christ flanked by two angels.Our fragment co...
Not on display
A ruinous chapel-like building stands in a rocky landscape. The Virgin Mary sits on the remains of a wall and presents the Christ Child to the Three Kings, who, together with their retinue, are gathered around her to present their gifts. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the Adoration of t...
Not on display
This painting is among the earliest known works by Filippino Lippi, probably made when he was still a member of the workshop of the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ in her right arm. He plucks seeds from a pomegranate – the fruit was a symbo...
Not on display
The Virgin Mary is seated at the centre of this painting, in the middle of a landscape. She is breastfeeding the infant Christ; a little bird (a coal tit) perched in the large tree behind her also feeds its young. Saint Jerome, kneeling before the Virgin, looks on in devotion. He clutches the sto...
Follower of Filippino Lippi
This painting is one of a pair that depicts episodes from the Book of Exodus, which describes how Moses rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and accompanied them into the promised land of Canaan.Moses brings forth Water out of the Rock is based on Exodus 17: 1–7. It shows the Israelites n...
Not on display
Follower of Filippino Lippi
This painting is the second of a pair that depicts episodes from the Book of Exodus, which describes how Moses rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and accompanied them into the promised land of Canaan.Moses had left the Israelites for 40 days and nights, climbing Mount Sinai to receive t...
Not on display