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Adoration of the Magi
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo1655 - 1660
The Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, United States
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo became the leading painter in devoutly Catholic Seville, Spain, from the 1640s to the end of his life. He painted almost exclusively for Seville’s many churches and religious orders. This painting is his only known depiction of the Adoration of the Magi—the wise kings from the east who come to worship the Christ Child. Murillo treats the subject in an appealingly human way, convincingly expressing the joy, solemn contemplation, and humble devotion of the three kings and their entourage as the infant Jesus is tenderly presented to them by the young Virgin Mary.
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Details
- Title: Adoration of the Magi
- Creator: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
- Creator Lifespan: 1617 - 1682
- Creator Nationality: Spanish
- Creator Gender: male
- Creator Death Place: Andalusia, Spain
- Creator Birth Place: Andalusia, Spain
- Date Created: 1655 - 1660
- Location Created: Europe, Spain
- Physical Dimensions: Painting: 75 1/8 × 57 1/2 in. (190.8 × 146.1 cm) Frame: 87 1/4 × 69 1/2 × 4 in. (221.6 × 176.5 × 10.2 cm)
- Subject Keywords: outdoors scene; religious; religion; Christian; Catholic; man; woman; child; infant; girl; boy; Christ; Virgin Mary; Madonna; wiseman; wisemen; kings; gifts; box; goblets; robes; crowns; spears; straw; hay; manger; Joseph
- Type: Painting
- Rights: https://toledomuseum.org/collection/image-resources
- External Link: Toledo Museum of Art
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Depicted Topic: Annunciation
- Fun Fact: The quiet grace of this painting is typical of the religious subjects depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, one of the greatest Spanish painters of the 1600s. In this, his only known depiction of the Adoration of the Magi, Murillo treats the subject in an appealingly human way. Instead of concentrating on the splendor of the kings and their entourage, he instead emphasizes their reaction to the Christ Child, convincingly expressing their joy, solemn contemplation, and humble devotion as the young Virgin Mary tenderly presents the child to them. Seen from the back, the kneeling king makes a particularly effective emotional impact and helps to draw the viewer into the scene. Though the biblical account of the Magi following a star from the east in search of the Christ Child is brief, later Church tradition expanded the story, providing names and other details about the wise men. As they came to represent the kings of the world acknowledging the sovereignty of Christ, their depiction in art developed symbolic associations related to the idea of the universal nature of Christianity. Here Murillo follows the tradition of representing the Magi as the three ages of man (youth, maturity, and old age) and as the three pre-Columbian continents known to the West (Africa, Asia, and Europe). The overall composition of the painting and the inclusion of the two young pages derive from three versions of the subject by Peter Paul Rubens that Murillo would have known from engravings. His synthesis of the great Flemish master's dramatic style is tempered by his own overriding sense of sweetness and simplicity and his gift for naturalistic detail.
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