Adoration of the Magi

Sumptuous fabrics, Eastern costumes, outlandish animals - all the typical attributes of medieval and Renaissance compositions of the Adoration of the Magi - were known to Veronese not just from his predecessors’ works. Venice in its golden age was Europe’s richest commercial port and abounded in exotica. In Veronese’s painting, its joyous motley was reflected more brightly than in the works of his great contemporaries, Titian, Tintoretto and the rest: it passed directly into his palette.