Adoration of the Magi (Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi) interest in both the subject and the form. The Magi had been the key Medici devotion for decades, apparently beginning with the papacy of Antipope John XXIII (1410–1415) when they had become the main bankers of the Papacy, or at least those parts John controlled. The Medici belonged to the "Compagnia de' Magi", a Florentine confraternity based at the San Marco complex just by the Medici Palace, both of which Cosimo de' Medici rebuilt a few years before the tondo was painted. An annual procession on the feast of the Epiphany on January 6 was organized by the confraternity, and
Adoration of the Magi (Rubens, Madrid) travelled to Spain for the second time, leaving on 29 September 1629. He had been summoned there to inform the king about his peace negotiations with Britain, but was also able to rework the painting while he was there. Francisco Pacheco relates in his work "El arte de la pintura" "[Rubens] changed some things in his painting of the Adoration of the Magi that was in the palace". This amounted to a complete re-working, with several details modified, strips added to the top and right hand edges (its original dimensions were 259 cm by 381 cm) and the style updated