Adoration of the Magi: Predella

The altarpiece is completed by a predella showing scenes of Christ’s childhood: the Nativity, the Presentation at the Temple, and the Flight into Egypt (in the centre). The section with the Presentation at the Temple is a modern copy of the original, which is at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

In the predella, in place of the gold background used in Mediaeval times, the scenes have blue skies, demonstrating an interest in nature and the beginning of those cultural and aesthetic canons that would flourish in the Renaissance.