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European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection

Adoration of the Magi

Predella panel of an altarpiece; companion to two panels in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Inv. 1290, 1292)

Made in Italy, Europe

c. 1385

Cenni di Francesco (Cenni di Francesco Cenni di Ser Cenni), Italian (active Florence, Volterra, and San Gimignano), first documented 1369, died 1414

Tempera and tooled gold on panel with horizontal grain
13 x 25 5/16 inches (33 x 64.3 cm)

* Gallery 273, European Art 1500-1850, second floor

Inv. 1291

John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Label

This panel was originally part of a long, horizontal plank that was the predella, or base, of an altarpiece. The subject of this scene and the two others that completed the predella—one showing the Martyrdom of Saints John the Baptist and Lawrence and the other representing the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew and the Miracle of the Bull (Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. 1290, 1292)—indicate that the main sections of the altarpiece depicted, from left to right: Saint John the Baptist, Saint Lawrence, the Virgin and Child, Saint Bartholomew, and Saint Michael Archangel. The presence of Saint Lawrence to the right of the Virgin, the traditional place of honor, suggests that the altarpiece was originally in a chapel or church dedicated to that saint, most likely in or near the artist’s hometown of Florence.

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