Adoration of the Magi

Artemisia Gentileschi had not long moved to Naples when, in the mid-1630s, she took on one of her largest and most public jobs. The new bishop of nearby Pozzuoli was refurbishing his cathedral, and he commissioned her to paint three big canvases for above the choir stalls, this Adoration of the Magi among them. It stands over three metres tall. The three kings crowd in to kneel before the infant Christ, their rich robes and gifts pressed close around Mary and the child in Artemisia's warm, heavy light. It was her first major commission in the region, and she signed it. After a long spell away in Naples for restoration, the painting was returned to its original place in the cathedral in 2014.