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Adoration of the Magi
by Guido Reni
About the Artwork
This large altarpiece was in the artist's studio when he died, and parts of the composition appear incomplete. Some figures lack color, and Reni never finished the wooden structure. The silvery ground layer appears everywhere, as do his changes to the composition, such as the dog's head above the angel's right knee and the adjustment to Christ's right leg, covered in blue. However, Reni's death does not fully explain the unfinished quality. Toward the end of his career, he increasingly painted in a loose and sketchy manner—popular with collectors at the time—an approach implying that concrete forms could never depict the ideal, spiritual world Reni aimed to present.
Provenance
1969-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio by 1968-1969: (P.&D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1 Probably 1880-by 1968: Corsini Collection, Florence, to Colnaghi 1 Probably 1812-1880: Barberini-Colonna di Sciarra collection, Rome, by descent to the Corsini collection 1645-1812: Cardinal Francesco Barberini [1597 –1679] by inheritance within the Barberini family, Barberini Palace, Rome, by descent to the Barberini-Colonna di Sciarra collection 1
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Guido Reni (Italian, 1575–1642)
- Date
- 1642
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 378 x 280.5 x 10.5 cm (148 13/16 x 110 7/16 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 367.3 x 268.6 cm (144 5/8 x 105 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1969.132
More by Guido Reni in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009640
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