Adoration of the Magi Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Description of Albrecht Dürer’s The Adoration of the Magi

The Uffizi Museum of Art in Florence, Italy, displays a religious painting by Albrecht Dürer, the painting The Adoration of the Magi.

The German master painted the work on commission for the elected prince of Saxony, Friedrich the Wise, for his Catholic church in Wittenberg. Today the painting is recognized as one of the most valuable fruits of Dürer’s work over a ten-year period from 1495.

Returning from a voyage to Italy, inspired by the painting of that southern state, the artist set to work on a new creation. As a result, the Italian Renaissance brought a particular technique of realistic perspective to the painting.

In the tradition of the German Renaissance was a depiction with close attention to detail, the use of rich, radiant colors, which is also clearly readable when you first look at The Adoration of the Magi.

Dürer’s religious painting echoes the subject matter of a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci, the large number of painted stones recalls the works of Andrea Mantegna, the radiant aura of painting is like that of Giovanni Bellini.

But the most obvious characteristic of Dürer is his focus on depicting the dynamics of the characters’ mental life.

The painter placed five figures in the foreground: the infant Jesus on his mother’s lap and the three Magi.

The Madonna is dressed in modest robes, embracing the child in a white sheet, their faces bright and shining. The Magi of Bethlehem are in expensive fabrics, with animal skins, with precious stones in their gold ornaments. The eldest of the wise men kneels before the Holy Family, holds out a box as a gift and looks anxiously into the face of the little Christ. Behind him the two wise men look at each other, their faces full of disbelief and doubt.

The ruins of ancient structures in the background dim in contrast with the figures of Mary and the child. In this way Dürer expressed the collapse of the old world before the birth of Christianity.