Altar Screen Fragment: Detail, the adoration of the Magi
1030-40
Originally in the Church of St. Domenica in Zadar, Croatia.
Archeological Museum, Zadar
On the far left of this photograph the shepherds approach the Nativity scene. On the right we see the subsequent episode in which the Magi arrive with gifts for the child. As in the earliest Magi images, they come in a row to the seated Virgin with the child on her lap. The beard on the first of them is slightly shorter than on the second, and the third has no beard at all.
The objects on their heads probably represent the traditional Phrygian caps, but on the basis of their vertical ribbing one might suggest that they are an early example of the crowns that will become common in the following century.
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Shown below is the altar-screen fragment itself, with the three shepherds and the Magi.
Read more about images of the Adoration of the Magi.
Photographed at the museum by Claire and Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
