The Adoration of the Magi
13th century
Fresco
Church of St. Elias, Draguć, Croatia
As in many of the earliest Adoration of the Magi images, the figures are arranged in a straight line beginning with the Virgin Mary seated on a throne (note the traditional pillow shape on her seat) and holding the child on her lap.
More medieval features are the crowns, the kneeling posture of the first mage, and the imagery in the background. The damaged right end of the fresco may have portrayed an enthroned King Herod in Jerusalem, while the outlined city on the left end represents Bethlehem and the green intervening space the distance traveled between them. The same treatment of the background space can be seen in a 16th-century Epiphany fresco in another church in Draguć.
The date is provided by the French Michelin guide to Croatia.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.