The Adoration of the Magi

Pietro della Vecchia's Adoration of the Magi from around 1650 reflects this Venetian painter's distinctive position as a conscious archaizer and imitator of Giorgione's manner at a time when the High Venetian Renaissance was a century past. Della Vecchia was famous in his own time for his ability to fake Giorgione and the early Venetian masters, producing pastiches that fooled contemporaries and have continued to confuse attribution. His Adoration uses the warm tonality, atmospheric landscape, and mysterious mood associated with early sixteenth-century Venice to create an image that participates in the nostalgic Venetianismus that shaped mid-seventeenth century painting in the city. The subject gives him opportunity for the kind of richly atmospheric outdoor night scene in which Giorgionesque painting excelled.

Della Vecchia's technique reflects the Venetian Baroque tradition with rich, warm colors and dramatic chiaroscuro. The figures are arranged in a dynamic composition with strong diagonal movement, while the paint handling shows the fluid, atmospheric quality characteristic of Venetian oil technique.