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The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century.
Magi bearing gifts, 4th-century sarcophagus, Rome
Magi bearing gifts, 4th-century sarcophagus, Rome
4th-century sarcophagus, Milan; one of the earliest Nativity images
Byzantine and Orthodox tradition
Mosaic in Byzantine style, Palermo, 1150
Early Medieval Western images
Gothic
13th-century French glass at Canterbury Cathedral with the full story of the Magi and typologically related scenes.
Pulpit Relief from the Pisa Baptistry by Nicola Pisano, 1260, is based in style on the reliefs of Roman sarcophagi.
Adoration of the Magi by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi
Piero della Francesca (unfinished)
Domenico Ghirlandaio, with classical ruins
Botticelli; his patrons, the Medici family, are depicted as the Magi and their retinue.
This complex Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci was never completed.
The Doni Tondo represents the Holy Family resting on the way to Egypt; Michelangelo.
The meeting of the Infant Christ and John the Baptist was a popular subject of Raphael.
Lorenzo Lotto, Giorgione, Mantegna
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Mannerism
El Greco, Baroque Adoration of the Shepherds lit by the Christ Child
Adoration of the Magi, Rubens, 1634
Nativity by Gustave Doré 1891
Nativity, Paul Gauguin, 1896, with a Tahitan setting
Nativity, after 1800
Late 19th-century stained glass of The Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi, Cologne Cathedral.
The Magi before Herod, French 15th-century stained glass
Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, the Magi presenting their gifts (mosaic detail), late 6th century, wearing Persian dress, and Phrygian cap
