17th century, Venetian School, Adoration of the Magi

17th century, Venetian School Adoration of the Magi Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 94 cm With frame, 67.5 x 75.5 cm The meeting between the three Wise Men and the baby Jesus is staged here at dusk, the faint light of which barely illuminates the figures, creating strong contrasts between light and shadow. On the right, the hut that sheltered the Holy Family can barely be seen, from which a young man leans out to observe the scene. The ox and donkey are unmissable, warming the family with their breath from the shadows, but two dogs also participate in the narrative, confirming the Venetian derivation of the painting; the 16th-century masters Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, and Titian, as well as the Bassano family, used to include faithful little dogs in their compositions, grounding the sacred story in everyday life. The present Adoration of the Magi, in fact, shows citations from the Venetian masters not only in the animal presence but also, above all, in the construction of the Virgin with child, in a slightly elevated position compared to the Magi, and the kneeling of one of the Kings, probably Melchior, given his age and the gold box he is giving to Jesus. These, in fact, are citations from the Adoration of the Magi by Francesco Maffei (Vicenza, c. 1605 – Padua, 1660), at the Cathedral of Vicenza, which in turn takes up The Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) at the National Gallery in London. That the painting under examination can be counted among the pictorial proofs of Venetian culture is also validated by the preciousness with which some details are realized, especially with regard to the fabrics, among which the gold brocade of Melchior's robe stands out to underline his royalty, as well as in the description of the fleece of the animals or the delicate shades of the sky in the background. The dark tones dictated by the shadows recall a Bassano matrix, but the chiaroscuro contrasts refer to the seventeenth-century innovations, validated by the close comparison with the aforementioned work by Maffei.