Scripture · Luke 2:22-35
Matthew 2:11
Adoration of the Magi
On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
A blue-and-white porcelain cup comes almost within reach. Mantegna presses faces, hands and gifts against the picture's surface, leaving the long journey and most of the room outside the frame.
About the artwork
The elderly visitor lifts the lid to reveal gold coins. Getty's study identifies the vessel as an early European depiction of Chinese porcelain, a rare luxury that reached Renaissance courts in small quantities. The container itself therefore makes distance visible. Mantegna imagines treasure from afar through an object that was extraordinary in his own world.
The close grouping gives the smallest gestures unusual weight: Mary's fingers support the child, his hand rises, and the visitors attend to him from different heights. The dark background offers no landscape into which the eye can escape. Their richly varied fabrics and faces are held together by the narrow space of the exchange.
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What does Matthew 2:11 mean?
Matthew 2:11 describes the opening of treasures after the Magi have bowed before Jesus. Here the lifted lid makes that opening immediate. The verse names the gifts but leaves their containers undescribed; Mantegna's porcelain cup turns the brief phrase into a material discovery. A precious object that has traveled far is being brought close enough for a child to see.
Sources
Getty: Mantegna, Adoration of the Magi.
Getty: Andrea Mantegna—The Adoration of the Magi, collection study. Study of the opened gift and its Chinese blue-and-white porcelain container, p. 82.
Matthew 2 — Berean Standard Bible. The paired text read in its surrounding chapter.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
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