Adoration of the Magi the central scene, usually a Nativity. The "adoration" of the Magi at the crib is the usual subject, but their arrival, called the "Procession of the Magi", is often shown in the distant background of a Nativity scene (usual in Byzantine icons), or as a separate subject, for example in the Magi Chapel frescos by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence. Other subjects include the Journey of the Magi, where they and perhaps their retinue are the only figures, usually shown following the Star of Bethlehem, and there are relatively uncommon scenes of their meeting with Herod and
Adoration of the Magi (Rubens, Cambridge) Adoration of the Magi (Rubens, Cambridge) The Adoration of the Magi is a c.1616-17 painting by the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, now in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The preparatory oil sketch for this painting is in The Wallace Collection, London. It was bought for a world-record price in 1959 by the property millionaire Alfred Ernest Allnatt and two years later he offered it to King's College Cambridge. The college accepted "this munificent gift" with the intention of displaying the painting in the college chapel, possibly as an altarpiece. The painting was initially displayed in the college's antechapel, but