Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli)

Botticelli arranges the kneeling kings and their retinue into a calm pyramid around the Virgin, before a crumbling classical ruin where the old pagan order yields to the new faith (Matthew 2:1-12). The picture doubles as a Medici group portrait: the eldest king at Christ's feet is Cosimo de' Medici, with his sons and grandsons, Lorenzo and Giuliano among them, scattered through the crowd. At the far right a young man in a saffron cloak looks boldly out - Botticelli himself. Commissioned by a Medici client for Santa Maria Novella, it advertises loyalty as openly as devotion, and helped make the painter's name.