Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Botticelli (1475)
Diocesan Museum, Cloisters of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan
Until 2 February 2025
An enchantment of colours, a perfect balance of lines and shapes, the symbol of Christmas exalted by the choral composition: this is how the Adoration of the Magi (1475), the masterpiece by Sandro Botticelli on loan to the Museo Diocesano in Milan from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence until 2 February 2025, appears from the first glance.
The skilful layout designed by the Museum leads the visitor through an evocative itinerary that through the introductory rooms finally leads to the encounter with the work of art, placed in an entirely dedicated space, semi-dark and silent, in an intimate and almost sacred atmosphere.
The theme of the nativity is narrated by Botticelli with a wealth of detail that stimulates observation and imagination. In the centre of the painting, in an elevated position, stands the Madonna and Child, dressed in a sky-blue mantle and a purple dress, signs of purity and divine love, watched over by Joseph in a position of absorbed concentration. The child, lapped by sparks of divine light raining down from the top of the hut, receives the homage of the Magi (the three ages of life, childhood, maturity, old age), while a peacock, a regal symbol of resurrection and rebirth, in a defiladed position on the right, keeps watch as if anticipating future events.
In the background on the left, the ruins of a classical building, in continuity with the hut, may allude to the integration of classical philosophy, whose ideals were recuperated by Florentine Neo-Platonic circles, and Christianity, which occupies pride of place here. The entire upper part of the composition is characterised by a quiet majesty.
The lower part of the painting, on the other hand, depicts the mundane dimension of the event with a parade of characters, dressed in Renaissance style, paying homage to the child. The figures of the Magi most probably include Cosimo de Medici, the man in the midnight blue robe embroidered with gold, who touches the feet of the child, a symbol of Jesus' humanity, and, behind him, his two sons, Piero and Giovanni. On the right, the man in the black and red robe would be Lorenzo de Medici; the white-haired man dressed in blue would be the commissioner of the work, Gaspare da Lama; in the foreground wearing an orange cape and looking towards the viewer is a self-portrait of Botticelli.
On the left, on the other hand, the subject embracing the knight is the coeval painter Agnolo Poliziano, and next to him, pointing at the sacred group, the humanist Pico della Mirandola and other dignitaries observing the scene. Worthy of note is the horse, to which Botticelli has given an almost human gaze, veiled with a subtle melancholy.
Looking at the work of art, one has the feeling that the characters are absorbed in a kind of meditation and that time has stopped in the eternal present of that moment. In Renaissance Florence, the doctrine of Marsilio Ficino, who saw the contemplation of beauty as an attempt to elevate oneself towards God, seems to find its full pictorial realisation in this work by Botticelli. The participants, gathered to form the base of an imaginary pyramid composition, express, with various poses and attitudes, man's aspiration to spiritual elevation through participation in Christmas.
The spectator, drawn into the scene thanks to the extraordinary colour rendering, vividness and harmony of the image, becomes in turn an emotional participant in the mystery of birth and an astonished witness of the era of profound cultural renewal that was the Renaissance.
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