DAVID, Ludovico Antonio
(b. 1648, Lugano, d. after 1709)

Adoration of the Magi

1690s
Oil on canvas
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Rome

The two large canvases in Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, the Adoration of the Magi and the Adoration of the Shepherds, are generally considered David's best works. Both were commissioned some time after 1691 by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the nephew of Pope Alexander VIII. They are painted with rich colours and turbulent rhythms, in the manner of the much-acclaimed Death of St Francis Xavier by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (known as Baciccio) in the same church.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.