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Procession of the Magi
Benozzo Gozzoli · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Benozzo Gozzoli (c. 1421–1497)
- Date
- 1459–1461
- Dimensions
- 405 x 516 cm (east wall)
- Medium
- Fresco
- Location
- Magi Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy
The Procession of the Magi covers the walls of the private chapel in the Medici family's palace in Florence. It shows the Three Kings travelling to Bethlehem in a magnificent cavalcade winding through a fairy-tale Tuscan landscape.
A closer look
On the east wall the youngest king, dressed in gold brocade and riding a white horse with jewelled harness, leads the procession. Behind him rides a crowd of richly dressed courtiers, among whom the Medici family and their allies can be recognised, including Cosimo the Elder on a modest mule and the young Lorenzo the Magnificent. Hunters chase deer, falcons fly, and castles crown the hills. Gozzoli even included himself, with his name written on his red cap. The fresco is a dazzling display of Medici wealth and of the splendour of 15th-century Florence.