Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli, 1475) described by Vasari as "the finest of all that are now extant for its life and vigour"), his sons Piero (the second Magus kneeling in the centre with the red mantle) and Giovanni (the third Magus), and his grandsons Giuliano and Lorenzo. The three Medici portrayed as Magi were all dead at the time the picture was painted, and Florence was effectively ruled by Lorenzo. Whether Botticelli's intimate relations with the Medici brothers allowed the wealthy Gaspare to introduce the portraits of their kinsmen in his altar-piece, or Gaspare was glad for this opportunity to pay a graceful compliment to
Adoration of the Magi (Mantegna) Tuscany, where the "Adoration" was misattributed to Botticelli. The three works were exhibited together from 1827, with a gilded new neo-Renaissance intaglio frame which compensated for the differing sizes of the central work and the side panels. Most modern critics note the differences between the three works, including their form, format, setting and quality, especially between the "Circumcision" and the other two works. Roberto Longhi doubted that the three works were conceived as a single unified triptych and theorised that instead they all came from different locations in the same chapel, as did "Death of the Virgin" and "Christ Bearing