Adoration of the Magi

In the early 1460s Mantegna took a post he would keep for the rest of his life, court painter to the Gonzaga rulers of Mantua. This panel was among the first things he made for them, one of three small tempera pictures for the private chapel inside their castle, meant to be prayed before by the family alone. Look at its shape. It curves, bowed slightly inward, because it was built to fit a rounded niche in the chapel wall rather than to hang flat. The three panels were only assembled into the single framed group you see today in the 19th century. Mantegna crowds the three kings into a tight press, close up against the holy family, with real gold worked into the surface.