# The Adoration of the Magi

**Giotto di Bondone** (Italian, Florentine, 1266/76–1337)  
possibly ca. 1320  
Tempera on wood, gold ground  
17 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (45.1 x 43.8 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 11.126.1. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436504).

## About this work

Against a gold ground, the three kings arrive at the stable in Bethlehem, the eldest kneeling before the Christ Child while an angel attends. Giotto, the Florentine painter credited with bringing new weight and naturalism to Italian painting, gives the figures solid bodies that occupy real space and gestures that read clearly at a glance. This small panel is generally thought to belong to a series of scenes from the life of Christ, now dispersed among several museums. The tooled gold and the tempera surface, built up in fine strokes, are typical of painting in the early fourteenth century.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Giotto di Bondone painted this (possibly ca. 1320), aged about 49. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Gold ground.** Gold leaf laid over a red clay and burnished to a mirror shine, often tooled with punches so it flickers in candlelight. Behind sacred figures it stands for heavenly light.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

### [Giotto di Bondone](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/giotto-di-bondone)

Italian, Florentine, 1266/76–1337

Giotto, a Florentine, broke with the flat, stylised conventions of Byzantine painting, giving his figures weight, solid space and human emotion. His fresco cycle in the Arena, or Scrovegni, Chapel in Padua, completed around 1305, tells the lives of the Virgin and Christ with a new dramatic clarity. Dante and later writers celebrated him as the renewer of painting, and in 1334 he was appointed master of works for Florence Cathedral, designing its bell tower.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was about 49
- Real size: about 18 × 17 in (45 × 44 cm). The 12 × 16 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 14th century
- Subjects: Animals, Angels, Jesus, Adoration of the Magi
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1091.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1091/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-adoration-of-the-magi-met-436504).