Arcadópolis
Adoration of the Magi
Leonardo da Vinci, 1481–1482
What you see
Mary, seated at the center with the Child on her lap, is the calm point of the scene. Around her, in a semicircle, a crowd presses in: the Magi kneel to offer gifts while others bow or raise their hands. A tree rises behind her. In the distance on the left stand ruins with staircases, and on the right, riders and horses in full motion.
Nearly everything is in browns, ochres and yellows, with shadows already painted beside figures only sketched in, which seem to appear and dissolve. Watch for the Child reaching toward one of the Magi’s gifts, the tree, whose dark foliage is actually painted, and the horses rearing in the upper right.
About Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was born in Vinci, near Florence, and was a painter, inventor, engineer and scientist all at once. He filled thousands of notebook pages with flying machines, studies of the human body and mirror-written notes. He finished only a few paintings, but almost all of them changed the history of art.
More by Leonardo da Vinci
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