The adoration of the Magi

Giovanni Francesco Toscani's Adoration of the Magi, painted around 1425, treats the Epiphany theme with the festive spirit characteristic of Florentine narrative painting. Toscani was a minor Florentine painter whose work reflects the decorative traditions of the International Gothic period The Adoration of the Magi and Adoration of the Shepherds were popular subjects that allowed artists to combine devotional feeling with elaborate compositions of figures, animals, and landscape.

The processional Epiphany scene fills the panel with richly costumed figures, rendered in the bright, decorative colors and festive compositional style that characterized the more conservative current of early Quattrocento Florentine painting.