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Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1475
Mary sits with the child high up in a ruin, Joseph behind her. An old man in black kneels before them. The rest of the picture is filled with well-dressed Florentines who talk, look on or look at us.
Gaspare del Lama, a money-broker, ordered the picture for his chapel in Santa Maria Novella. Since Vasari the three kings have been read as portraits of the Medici: the old Cosimo before the child, and his sons Piero and Giovanni below. Half of Florence's leading family attends the Epiphany.
The young man in the yellow cloak at the edge looks straight at us. He is thought to be Botticelli himself.
The old king touches the child's foot through a cloth.
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