The Christmas season officially closes today with the Christian feast of Epiphany, celebrating the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles and the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus. Like the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi is a frequently represented subject in Christian art.
Though the Magi are quite often portrayed in sumptuous and colourful garments and their exotic dress is typical of Persian astrologers or Mithraic priests, they have a wider meaning as they represent the universal acceptance of Christianity by all people. For inspiration, let's look at two versions of the Adoration.
The first one is this sumptuously rich altarpiece (1423) by Gentile da Fabriano. The figures represented wear brocaded and velvet gowns, jewels and crowns, and the artist used different techniques to create the magnificently opulent details of the piece.
Crowns, spurs and swords are covered in gold and the patterns of the clothes were made applying paint over metal leaf. This Adoration of the Magi is definitely more materialistic, but it can maybe help us experimenting with metallic textures, rich textiles and intense shades.
Leonardo da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi is the opposite of this altarpiece. Commissioned in 1481, the painting remained incomplete, but Leonardo introduced with it some great innovations. While the Virgin Mary and the Child are still at the centre of the scene, Leonardo arranged numerous figures around them in a freer definition of space that he obtained through light and shadow effects.
Rocks and mountains and an architectural structure in perspective create a sense of depth in the background, but the landscape and the space are populated by many different figures, including two men battling on horseback, an old man wrapped in a cloak, three figures kneeling, and a young man gazing outward but with his right arm pointing at the centre of the composition.
Most figures included have a strong dynamism about them and the sfumato effects employed make them look hazy and indefinite, as if they were illusions blurring the boundaries between human beings and angels.
There's a sense of vitality in this work that lacks in most representions of the same scene. The theme of the Adoration also expands to the entire scene rather than touching only the people immediately in the foreground, to symbolise the fact that the divinity reaches out to all humankind. This scene inspires us to break from rigid geometries and linear perspectives and use strong, active and creative powers.
For some further lighter adoration inspiration after this brief art lesson, I'm going to leave you with Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 1984 hit "The Power of Love". The video of this hit, as many of you will remember, also featured a nativity/adoration scene.
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