Adoration of the Magi 1517

Editor: Here we have Correggio's "Adoration of the Magi," created around 1517, using oil paint. It feels quite traditional to me, in terms of composition. What do you see in this piece, especially regarding its High Renaissance style? Curator: I see a concentrated deployment of material wealth, rendered through layers of oil. Think about it: the pigments themselves, ground from minerals and plants, then bound in oil, meticulously applied to a prepared surface. This labour and cost were deliberately intended to convey the opulence of the patrons. Editor: So, it’s not just a religious scene, but a display of the patrons' affluence? Curator: Exactly. Look at the Magi's garments, their textiles. How are those rendered, and what might their material value have signaled to a contemporary audience? The artist also considered the material processes through this detailed depiction of costly garments and gifts of gold, and costly vessels. Editor: I hadn't considered how the very act of painting it – the expensive materials, the time taken – reinforced the themes it depicts! So you are seeing not only the depiction of objects, but reflecting on how the objects themselves were created. Curator: Precisely. And the market for these devotional works. What drove demand? What types of labor were considered valuable and invisible in this era? Editor: It changes how I perceive it, thinking about it less as pure devotion, and more about the hands that made it possible and why. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure, now think of what that process of creation was like. How it may have influenced and guided future works that may follow.