Exhibition
Paolo Veronese’s Adoration of the Magi is A Masterpiece for Milan 2018, the eleventh edition of the initiative.
The painting is a masterpiece of sacred art from the mature years of Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese (Verona, 1538 – Venice, 1588), one of the leading artists of the later Venetian Renaissance.
The Adoration of the Magi was painted between 1573 and 1575 for the Sacra Spina Chapel in the Dominican church of Santa Corona in Vicenza, where it remains today. In these years, Veronese produced numerous large altarpieces for Venice and other cities in the Veneto, distinguished by festive colors, surprising light effects and theatrical settings. The composition is dominated by imposing architecture reminiscent of Palladio: a ruined temple alluding to the declining pagan world, against which rests the wooden shelter housing the Holy Family. This familiar motif draws on Titian’s Pesaro Altarpiece in the Frari in Venice.
The Magi wear sumptuous fabrics that evoke the occupation of the patron, the wealthy Vicenza textile merchant Marcantonio Cogollo, portrayed as the bearded figure behind the dark-skinned king.
At the center, the king in the red cloak forms a pivot: his turning movement closes the implied circle around the Madonna and Child, Saint Joseph and the kneeling king in yellow.
Elegantly dressed pages and servants, together with the small dogs typical of Veronese’s paintings, transform the sacred event into something like a sixteenth-century celebration. The donkey and ox look on curiously, while the splendid procession glimpsed on the left joins the scene. The rich drapery and exceptional colors, restored to their original brilliance in 2014, reveal the pictorial splendor and triumph of decorative color characteristic of Veronese.
A visit to the Adoration of the Magi at the Museo Diocesano can continue meaningfully in the adjacent Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio, which preserves relics of the Magi. According to tradition, these were donated in the fourth century by the emperor of Constantinople to Eustorgius, bishop of Milan. Taken by Frederick Barbarossa’s men in the twelfth century to Cologne, some were returned through Cardinal Ferrari’s efforts in the early twentieth century. They remain in a beautiful reliquary inside the altar of the Magi, in their chapel in the basilica’s right transept. The reliquary will be displayed during the exhibition. The same chapel contains the large sarcophagus traditionally believed to have carried the Magi’s bodies from the East to Milan.
The painting is on loan from the Municipality of Vicenza. The initiative is carried out under the patronage of the Archdiocese of Milan, the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Milan, the Municipality of Vicenza, with the support of Rinascente; sponsor UBI Banca; special partner Trenord.
