Adoration of the Magi; on the predella: Annunciation, Nativity, Flight into Egypt

Located originally in the third chapel on the left in thechurch of San Bartolomeo in Vicenza, this painting, a fine example of the early activity of Marcello Fogolino (the artist’s signature is on the scroll on the seat of the Virgin and on the bridle of the first horse on the right), depicts the three Magi paying homage to the Holy Family.

However, the real protagonist of the work is the grandiose procession which, coming slowly down from a scenic steep precipice, moves towards the foreground, dominating the sacred event and transforming it into a kind of corollary of the entire scene. There is a crowd of knights and ladies, pages and falconers, court dwarves and exotic animals (elephants, camels and monkeys) mingled with shepherds, huntsmen and small domestic animals, rendered with scrupulous care and attention in defining the details and the brilliant colours. What the artist proposes here is a universe that is realistic and fantastic at the same time, the expression of pomp, of still Late Gothic taste, typical of the courtly world.

A colourful multitude of characters set in an “archaeological fairytale landscape that romantically expresses the values of humanism” (Barioli), made of old ruins and medieval castles, rocky cliffs and steep paths, partly fruit of the painter’s fertile imagination and partly referring precisely to the topography of the city of Vicenza. In the architectural structure of a military type in the centre of the painting we can recognise the outline of one of the city gates, Porta Santa Croce, and in the building with a central plan, adorned with statues, one of the still visible remains of Roman Vicenza. The steep rock on the left has been identified as the “rock of Donna Berta”, on the slopes of the Berici Hills.

A significant detail of the painting is the small person drawing at the foot of the temple, in which we can recognise the artist himself.