Benozzo Gozzoli, Journey of the Magi, 1459

The acme of Benozzo Gozzoli’s career, the Journey of the Magi serves as the accumulation of all of Gozzoli’s skills and admirations.

Gozzoli, pupil of Fra Angelico, is often overlooked in the assemblage of Renaissance artists. Little is known about Gozzoli, past his student-mentor relationship with Angelico. He boasts no awe-inspiring achievements or scandals. Thus, we see Gozzoli only for his art, rather than his life. His style is infamous for changing and many of his pieces fail to match stylistically when compared. However, Gozzoli did retain a style of his own, of which is displayed wholly in the Medici commissioned Journey of the Magi.

Gozzoli, enthralled with nature, featured sloping cliffs, tall trees, and a slew of animals in many of his paintings. The structures of rock are graceful and smooth, simulating drapery rather than stone. The impracticality of his favored painting subjects is imminent in his art, signaling that Gozzoli did not aim for a realistic approach. Rather, the Journey of the Magi is meant to depict the Medici family’s progression and glorify Lorenzo de' Medici, drawing the most attention out of the crowd of people. He sits on a white horse with adorned clothing, symbolizing one of three Magi traveling to visit the Christ child. Gozzoli gratuitously paints himself concealed in the crowd, recognizable by his gaze.