The document discusses Gentile da Fabriano's painting Adoration of the Magi from 1423. It was commissioned by wealthy Florentine banker and merchant Palla Strozzi for the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Trinita, Florence. The painting depicts the biblical scene in International Gothic style, which had spread across Europe through trade, manuscripts, and royal marriages. Contextual analysis can reveal relationships between this work and others from its time period, by the same artist, and how it expresses the values and ideas of its patron and relates to contemporary society, religion, and politics.

1. Art 100
UnderstandingVisual Culture
MODULE 7.2
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

2. agenda 3.3.16
 context (continued)
 when the cultural horizon is different (either
because the time period, the culture, or both are
different from that of the viewer) contextual
analysis is required.

3. Gentile da
Fabriano,
Adoration of the
Magi, 1423
What visual features
of this work
do we notice
immediately?

5. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423

6. What questions might we ask?
1. what is the relationship between this work
and other works of the time period?
2. what is the relationship between this work
and other works by the same artist?
3. how does this work express the values and
ideas of the patron?
4. how does this work relate to contemporary
social conditions? religious beliefs? political
events?

7. 1. what is the relationship between this work
and other works of the time period?
 “International Gothic Style”
 this is a courtly style. Luxury objects=
(expensive materials +elegant subject matter)
 illuminated manuscripts, tapestries (woven
and painted) could travel relatively easily,
allowing for diffusion of style across national
borders; intermarriage between European
royal families also facilitated artistic transfer

8. Simone Martini, The Annunciation, 1333, tempera on panel, 72 1/2 x 82 5/8

9. The Limbourg
Brothers
TheTres Riches
Heures du Duc du
Berry
1412-16

10. Gentile da Fabriano
The Coronation of the
Virgin
c. 1420
tempera and gold leaf
on panel
34 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches

11. Christ's halo is gilded and
tooled.
It carries an inscription:
YHS XPS FIL(IUS).
Combining Greek and
Latin, translates as: Jesus
Christ Son of God.

12. Stylistic features visible in
this detail:
• extensive tooling
(impressing/stamping
a design using metal
tools)
• gold leaf
• decorative patterning
using richly colored
pigments
http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/glossary.html

13. The scroll held by the
angel on the left reads:
Timete dominum et date
ille hono [rem] (Fear the
Lord and give honor to
him).

14. The Coronation of the Virgin
Gentile was commissioned to
paint this scene for his native
town, Fabriano (Gentile’s
hometown) commissioned
this work from him after he
became famous.
This was processional
standard held aloft in town
parades that honored the
Virgin Mary.The reverse side
of the panel originally
depicted The Stigmatization of
Saint Francis. However, the
panel was sawed in half (not
side to side, but front to back);
the Saint Francis side is now in
a private collection in Italy.

15.  Gentile's most famous
surviving works were
made during his time in
Florence in the 1420s,
where his work was
widely seen and he had
the opportunity to see
the works of Florentine
painters. He worked in
Venice, Florence, Siena,
Orvieto, and Rome, but
most of his frescoes have
been destroyed.

16. Gentile da
Fabriano,
Adoration of the
Magi, 1423

18. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423

19. SantaTrinita, Florence
outside of city walls at time of construction

20. #20 marks the
location of the
Capella Strozzi

21. Palla Strozzi
 wealthy merchant and
banker in Florence
 spent huge sums of
money on art (e.g.,
marble tomb for his
father, decorations for
the Strozzi Chapel in
SantaTrinita)
 spent 30,000 florins on
Gentile’s Adoration of
the Magi
 this was an absurdly
large amount of money
and a chunk of his
fortune.
 did not manage his
money well
 was exiled to Padua for
life after the return of
the Medici family to
Florence
 continued to invest in
the Strozzi Chapel from
afar

22. references to the Strozzi
family
*Order of the Golden Spur (being
placed around the ankle of the
foreground king).
*Company of the Magi (Florence
social club to which Palla Strozzi
belonged); held festival on Epiphany
(Jan 6) with parade fromTown Hall
to San Marco.
*Magi as symbolic of wealthy
merchants laying gifts at the feet of
the church
*Strozziere—”Master of the
Falcons”—symbolic of the family
name

24. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matthew+2

25. Possible explanations
Individual style?
Artist’s biography and preferences?
Patron’s biography and preferences?
Social, political, cultural, religious surroundings