The Adoration of the Magi

Cesare da Sesto learned his art in Leonardo's Milan, close enough to the master to absorb his soft shadows and gentle faces. Then he carried that Lombard manner far south. He painted this large Adoration around 1516 while living in Messina, in Sicily, as the high altarpiece for the church of the Congrega di San Niccolò. It shows the three kings arriving to honour the newborn Christ, a crowded scene of horses, servants and gifts. When the church was closed at the end of the 18th century, the picture entered the Bourbon royal collection and travelled to Naples. It hangs today in the Capodimonte museum, on the hill above the city where the Bourbon kings kept their paintings.