A Visit to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

One of the side benefits of working at the Maryland State Archives is that we can do day trips to Washington, D.C. and visit some of the amazing museums and other sights. We began our visits with a trip to the National Gallery of Art. This is a painting by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi called The Adoration of the Magi. It was painted sometime between 1440 and 1460 A.D. I love the color and symbolism of this painting. The detail is incredible. Here is a description of the painting from a Wikipedia article:

The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippino Lippi. It is signed and dated at 1496. It is housed in the Uffizi of Florence. 

The panel was painted for the Convent of the San Donato agli Scopeti, in substitution of the one commissioned in 1481 to Leonardo da Vinci, who left it unfinished. In 1529 it was acquired by Cardinal Carlo de' Medici and in 1666 it became part of the Uffizi collection. 

Filippino Lippi followed Leonardo's setting, in particular in the central part of the work. Much of its inspiration was clearly derived from Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, also in the Uffizi: this is evident in the disposition of the characters on the two sides, with the Holy Family portrayed in the centre under. Similarly to Botticelli's work, Filippino also portrayed numerous members of the Medici cadet line, who had adhered to the Savonarolian Republic in the period in which the work was executed. On the left, kneeling and holding with a quadrant, is Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who had died 20 years before. Behind him, standing, are his two sons Giovanni, holding a goblet, and Lorenzo, from whom a page is removing a crown. 

The general style is that of Filippino's late career, characterized by a greater care to details and by a nervous rhythm in the forms, influenced by the knowledge of foreign painting schools (as also in the landscape of the background).

I realize that this isn't one of my usual landscape photos, but from time to time, I have uploaded photos from museums and will continue to do so.  You can see more detail in the photo by clicking on the image. By the way, I majored in Fine Art with an emphasis on Painting and Drawing my first year at the University of Utah. I have a rather extensive background in art history. A further note, this photo was taken with an iPhone 8 plus.