著者

小林 利延

出版者

美学会

雑誌

美學 (ISSN:05200962)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, no.4, pp.58-71, 1979-03-30

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Owing to its unique construction, Botticelli's "Adoration of the Magi" in the Uffizi is distinguished from his other works of the same theme. Five of his "Adoration" paintings still survive, and they consist of various pictorial elements-Holly Family, three Magi, "a great multitude and a noble following" after Pseudo-Bonaventura's <Meditations>, horses, trees, ruins, buildings and so on. Among his "Adoration"s, the work in the Uffiizi has smaller number of horses than others and lacks "a great multitude", trees and buildings (see Table 1). Although the works in The National Gallery, London, and in National Gallery of Art, Washington, have the similar construction, "Adoration" in the Uffizi, which was painted between those two, has a considerable difference in construction. Besides, the composition of "Adoration" in the Uffizi is compressed in both sides. And again, one of the several vanishing points of its own linear perspective falls below the lower side of the picture. These mentioned facts lead us to assume that the sides of "Adoration" in the Uffizi were probably cut off from the original picture. The lost parts must have contained all those pictorial elements lacking in the present "Adoration" in the Uffizi.