New Testament Notes

Adoration of the Magi

            Adoration of the Magi (also Adoration of the Kings) - The Gospel of St. Matthew (2:1-12) tells how certain Magi (the Wisemen) from the Orient arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed the rising of his star, and we have come to pay him homage.' (Mat. 2:2-3). King Herod and his court were greatly perturbed on hearing this; he asked the magi to report to him after they found the Child, so he too could go and worship him. Guided by the star, the magi discovered the Infant in a house at Bethlehem, worshiped him and presented him with their gifts. A dream warned the magi not to return to Herod’s court and they set off instead for their own country by another route.
           Apocryphal gospels have enriched and embelished Matthew's story. In the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D. the wisemen were also refered to as kings. In, approximately, the 9th they were given names: Caspar, or Jaspar, usually the oldest, Balthazar, and Melchior, usually the youngest. Though Matthew did not reveal the number of the magi, they are traditionally thought of as being three because of the number of symbolic gifts they presented to Christ: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Later the three magi (or kings) came to personify the three parts of the known world: Asia, Africa, and Europe.
See: Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli. Adoration of the Magi.
Hans Baldung The Three Kings Altarpiece.
Hieronymus Bosch Epiphany, Epiphany.
Alessandro Botticelli Adoration of the Magi, Adoration of the Magi, Adoration of the Magi.
Dieric Bouts the Elder The Adoration of the Magi.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder The Adoration of the Kings, Adoration of the Magi in Winter Landscape.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger Adoration of the Magi.

Pietro Cavallini. Adoration of the Kings.
Domenico Veneziano. The Adoration of the Magi.
Gerard David. The Adoration of the Magi.
Albrecht Dürer Adoration of the Magi
.
Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Maestà: The Adoration of the Magi.
Gentile da Fabriano. Adoration of the Magi.
Domenico Ghirlandaio Adoration of the Magi, The Adoration of the Magi.
Fra Angelico. Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi. Linaiuoli Tabernacle: Adoration of the Magi.
Giorgione Adoration of the Magi.
Giotto The Adoration of the Magi, The Epiphany.
Hugo van der Goes Adoration of the Magi.
Frederick Leighton. The Star of Bethlehem.
Leonardo da Vinci  Adoration of the Magi
.
Limbourg Brothers. Les trčs riches heures du Duc de Berry. Adoration of the Kings.
Filippino Lippi The Adoration of the Magi,
Fra Filippo Lippi. The Adoration of the Magi.
Masaccio The Adoration of the Magi.
Hans Memling Triptych: The Nativity, The Adoration of the Magi, The Presentation in the Temple.
Pontormo. The Adoration of the Magi.
Raphael Adoration of the Magi.
Peter Paul Rubens Adoration of the Magi.
Martin Schongauer. The Adoration of the Magi.
Diego Velázquez. The Adoration of the Magi.
Paolo Veronese. The Adoration of the Kings.
Rogier van der Weyden Middelburg Altarpiece. Three Magi, St. Columba Altarpiece. Adoration of the Magi.
 

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