Adoration of the Magi

This is Signorelli's version of a scene every Florentine painter was asked for sooner or later, the moment the three kings reach the newborn Christ and kneel with their gifts. The subject let a painter show off: sumptuous robes, a crowd of attendants, horses and distant travellers strung back into the landscape, the oldest king usually kneeling closest while the youngest waits his turn. It is one of several works by Signorelli that the Uffizi holds, and a good deal less studied than his famous frescoes. Gold, offered by the first of the kings, was read in his day as the tribute owed to a ruler, which is why that king is the one shown nearest the child.