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Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi; 1444/45–1510)
Horses and Spectators (Fragment of an Adoration of the Kings), 1500–1505
Brush and brown ink or tempera, heightened with white, over traces of black chalk, on three pieces of prepared linen stitched together
12 3/8 x 13 1/4 inches (316 x 338 mm)
Gift of J. P. Morgan, Jr., 1924; I, 5
See CORSAIR catalog record for this item »

Together with two additional sections now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, these figures once formed part of a composition of the Adoration of the Magi. The monochrome technique and expressive figures reveal the influence of Leonardo’s unfinished Florentine Adoration. The extensive modeling and high degree of finish suggest that Botticelli’s original canvas was either intended as a monochromatic painting or, more likely, a late compositional study used as a guide for establishing light values.

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