{"id":372724,"date":"2026-05-21T13:19:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/lot\/adoration-of-the-magi-oil-on-copper-2006179158\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:48:24","slug":"adoration-of-the-magi-oil-on-copper-2006179158","status":"publish","type":"lot","link":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/lot\/adoration-of-the-magi-oil-on-copper-2006179158\/","title":{"rendered":"[Auction 160] Lot 430 – Adoration of the Magi, oil on copper"},"content":{"rendered":"Oil on copper\r\nDepicting the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, with the Virgin seated to the right, holding the Infant Jesus on her lap, before the three Magi and their retinue\r\nComposition arranged around the figure of the Child, with one of the Magi kneeling in the foreground, another seated holding an offering, and a third to the left, accompanied by figures with turbans, a standard, and a camel\r\nIn the upper plane, angels are seen among clouds and the Star of Bethlehem, projecting its ray towards the main scene\r\nArchitectural background with ruins, darkened landscape and glimpses of sky to the left","protected":false},"featured_media":374696,"template":"","categories":[65,52],"class_list":["post-372724","lot","type-lot","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paintings","category-pintura","author-sebastiano-conca-attrib"],"acf":{"auction_number":"160","number":"430","ref":"430","letter":"0","hammer_value":"0","show_hammer_value":true,"estimation_min":"22000","estimation_max":"30000","price_on_request":false,"author":2751,"auction":{"ID":370388,"post_author":"44","post_date":"2026-04-07 14:24:22","post_date_gmt":"2026-04-07 14:24:22","post_content":"","post_title":"160 - Antiques & Works of Art, Silver & Jewellery","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"161-antiques-works-of-art-silver-jewellery","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-06-05 12:59:14","post_modified_gmt":"2026-06-05 12:59:14","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/?post_type=auction&p=370388","menu_order":0,"post_type":"auction","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"name":"Adoration of the Magi, oil on copper","dimensions":"62.2x76.9 cm","description":"Oil on copper
\r\nDepicting the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, with the Virgin seated to the right, holding the Infant Jesus on her lap, before the three Magi and their retinue
\r\nComposition arranged around the figure of the Child, with one of the Magi kneeling in the foreground, another seated holding an offering, and a third to the left, accompanied by figures with turbans, a standard, and a camel
\r\nIn the upper plane, angels are seen among clouds and the Star of Bethlehem, projecting its ray towards the main scene
\r\nArchitectural background with ruins, darkened landscape and glimpses of sky to the left","additional_info":[{"title":"Additional Information","text":"Provenance:
\r\nAcquired at Sotheby's, London, between 20 and 29 July 2020, in the Old Master Day Sale including Old Master Paintings, Drawings and British Works on Paper, lot 146.
\r\n
\r\n"},{"title":"Note","text":"This small painting on copper depicts the Adoration of the Magi, with the kings shown to the left and centre presenting their gifts, accompanied by an exotic retinue of pages, soldiers and camels. To the right appears the Holy Family\u2014the Virgin, the Christ Child and Saint Joseph\u2014set against a grand fragment of classical ruins. Above, a glory of angels among the clouds frames the celebrated Star of Bethlehem mentioned in the Gospel of Saint Matthew: the mysterious heavenly sign that guided the Magi from the East to Bethlehem, and which later astrological tradition at times associated with Halley\u2019s Comet.
\r\nThe picture displays the learned stylistic features associated with Sebastiano Conca and clearly suggests a connection with his artistic circle. A native of Gaeta, trained in Naples under Francesco Solimena (1657\u20131747), Conca would go on to achieve major success in Rome, where his gifts as a painter and his command of large-scale composition brought him important commissions from Pope Clement XI, as well as from leading members of the Church and nobility. He collaborated with Carlo Maratta (1625\u20131713) and, once established independently, became master to artists such as Corrado Giaquinto and Pompeo Batoni, among other notable exponents of that persuasive late Baroque language which also found a ready market in Portugal during the reign of King Jo\u00e3o V and continued to enjoy European appeal in devotional painting well into the second half of the eighteenth century.
\r\nA painting securely attributed to Conca and strikingly close to the present work, both in its overall arrangement and in several details, is the Adoration of the Magi of about 1707\u20131710 (oil on canvas, 50 x 67 cm) in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome. That picture demonstrates why Conca is regarded as one of the leading exponents of the Italian eighteenth-century Baroque, with a prolific output of sacred subjects inspired by the Bolognese tradition of the previous century, yet enriched by a warmer, more varied and more atmospheric handling of colour. In the Roman canvas, the drawing is especially assured, from the refined characterisation of the Magi\u2019s entourage to the treatment of the ruined architecture and, above all, the luminous and graceful figure of the Virgin presenting the Christ Child to the kneeling kings, beneath a heavenly host of angels.
\r\nIn the present copper, however, a number of compositional simplifications may be observed, suggesting that it is a later and less carefully executed version of Conca\u2019s invention. This is especially clear in the treatment of the Virgin, who still follows the master\u2019s type but lacks the subtle modelling and transparency of the figure in the Roman canvas. Other changes are equally telling: the pose of Saint Joseph at the right is altered, and here he is accompanied by a young member of the Magi\u2019s retinue who does not appear in the Palazzo Corsini composition and is handled with noticeably less strength. Likewise, the elegant female figure in contrapposto that animates the left-hand side of the Roman painting is absent here, replaced instead by a more awkward page holding the red cloak of the kneeling king in the foreground.
\r\nOn the basis of these formal observations and stylistic comparisons, this copper, datable to the first third of the eighteenth century, is best understood as a workshop version of a composition by Sebastiano Conca, produced either within his studio or by one of his followers or later pupils.
\r\nNote: For the Palazzo Corsini canvas, see the catalogue edited by M. Di Marco, Sebastiano Conca (1680\u20131764), Palazzo De Vio, Gaeta, 1981, p. 92, no. 4.
\r\n"},{"title":"Sebastiano Conca and the Adoration of the Magi:\u2028Between Baroque Classicism and Rococo Sensibility","text":"The painting we now bring to auction invites us to consider the artist Sebastiano Conca (Gaeta, 1680 \u2013 Naples, 1764), one of the central figures of Italian painting in the early eighteenth century, who played a decisive role in the transition from the late Roman Baroque to the brighter, more elegant and decorative sensibility of the Rococo.
\r\nTrained in Naples in the workshop of Francesco Solimena (1657\u20131747), Conca initially absorbed the compositional gravity and plastic vigour of the Neapolitan tradition, yet from an early stage he revealed a personal inclination towards clearer, less dense and more intimate solutions. This precocious independence is already evident in his first Neapolitan works and in the way he gradually abandoned his master\u2019s volumetric weight in favour of a more airy structure, a lighter palette and a notably elegant draftsmanship.
\r\nThe Roman Experience
\r\nHis move to Rome, around 1706\u20131707, proved decisive for the consolidation of his career. In the papal capital he quickly entered the circle of commissions and ecclesiastical works, establishing himself as one of the most refined interpreters of religious painting of his time.
\r\nAlthough relatively limited in quantity, his early Roman production is particularly important for understanding the genesis of his style. Before 1720, a number of key works may be identified, including the Adoration of the Magi in the Tours Museum collection, dated 1707, the two Allegories in the Galleria Spada, the Jeremiah in San Giovanni, in the Basilica of St John Lateran, dated 1718, as well as the cycles in San Clemente and other devotional paintings of the same period. In these works one may discern a clear tendency towards religious classicism, with echoes of Carlo Maratta (1625\u20131713), Giuseppe Passeri (1654\u20131714) and Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (1654\u20131727), though already in dialogue with the emerging Rococo taste.
\r\nFrom the 1720s onwards, his reputation became fully European. He received important commissions for Turin, Rome, Siena and other cities, and established himself as a prominent figure within the Accademia di San Luca, where he consolidated his position as heir to, continuator of and renewer of the great tradition of Roman monumental decoration.
\r\nHis style always displayed remarkable flexibility, adapting itself to different scales and functions. In large altarpieces and ceiling programmes, his language appears more solemn, architectural and Marattesque. In cabinet pictures, by contrast, a more intimate, Arcadian and lyrical facet emerges, often associated with the rise of the Roman Rococo. It is precisely this versatility that explains the wide circulation of his work in aristocratic and ecclesiastical collections throughout Europe.
\r\nThe Adoration of the Magi
\r\nWithin the context of his oeuvre, the Adoration of the Magi now presented at auction should be understood as a mature composition, executed with complete formal assurance, in which the artist combines the solemnity of the subject with elegance of design and chromatic fluency. By its very nature, the theme lends itself to ceremonial staging: the Virgin and Child form the hieratic centre of the scene, while the Magi, shown in different degrees of approach and veneration, introduce movement, hierarchy and theatricality.
\r\nIn the present painting, the composition is organised with clarity and balance, with the sacred group in the foreground. At the same time, the architectural and landscape setting provides an effective frame, while the presence of angels in the upper register reinforces the epiphanic dimension of the episode. The palette, dominated by intense blues, warm reds, golds and ochres, confirms the artist\u2019s taste for controlled brilliance and textile richness.
\r\nFrom a stylistic point of view, the work displays highly characteristic features of Conca: softly contoured figures, broad and fluid draperies, faces of great delicacy, and a spatial construction that avoids rigidity in favour of continuous, ceremonial movement. The painting clearly belongs to the so-called Roman Baroque classicism, that is, to an elegant updating of the Marattesque tradition, already filtered through a lighter and more decorative sensibility.
\r\nThe treatment of the fabrics, the use of colour and the arrangement of the figures suggest a phase in which Conca had fully mastered his artistic vocabulary and applied it with extraordinary effectiveness to an iconography of great prestige. The most plausible dating for this painting may be placed, with confidence, between his mature Roman phase and the beginning of his later maturity, probably between the 1730s and the 1750s, and it may even be associated with the period in which the artist developed small- and medium-scale works intended for collectors and private devotional settings.
\r\nFinal Considerations
\r\nComparison with the Adoration of the Magi in the Tours Museum, dated 1707, suggests an earlier and more compact formulation of the subject, still very close to the orthodoxy of the early Baroque. By contrast, the version in the Princeton University Art Museum, dating from around 1750, reveals a more refined, intimate and slightly gentler solution, typical of the painter\u2019s late phase. The work under discussion would therefore appear to stand between these two poles: less compact and more fluid than the Tours painting, yet also less subdued than the Princeton version, which allows us to propose an intermediate-to-late dating within Conca\u2019s career.
\r\nIn comparative terms, this painting may also be related to other museum works by the artist or within his orbit, notably the ensembles in San Clemente and San Giovanni in the Basilica of St John Lateran, which display a clear narrative structure and a solid classicising construction, as well as to the small devotional pictures now preserved in public and private collections, where atmospheric lightness and chromatic sensitivity are especially evident.
\r\nFrom the point of view of both the market and attribution, this is a work that fits fully within the profile of Sebastiano Conca: an artist of extensive production, much admired by his contemporaries, widely circulated internationally, and highly capable of adapting to commissions of different scales and levels of prestige.
\r\n
\r\nTiago Franco Rodrigues"}],"tags":"Paintings","gallery":[{"image":{"ID":374696,"id":374696,"title":"160_430","filename":"430-scaled.jpg","filesize":1472168,"url":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/lot\/adoracao-dos-tres-reis-magos-4592909\/160_430\/","alt":"","author":"44","description":"","caption":"","name":"160_430","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":372723,"date":"2026-05-21 19:44:35","modified":"2026-05-21 19:44:49","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2560,"height":2273,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":266,"medium_large":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":682,"large":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":909,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-1536x1364.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1364,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-2048x1818.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1818,"v_medium":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-640x568.jpg","v_medium-width":640,"v_medium-height":568,"gform-image-choice-sm":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","gform-image-choice-sm-width":300,"gform-image-choice-sm-height":266,"gform-image-choice-md":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","gform-image-choice-md-width":400,"gform-image-choice-md-height":355,"gform-image-choice-lg":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/430-scaled.jpg","gform-image-choice-lg-width":600,"gform-image-choice-lg-height":533}},"is_video":false,"video_source":"","video_id":"","use_video_thumbnail":true}],"auction_session":"2","show_in_withdrawn_lots":true},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lot\/372724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lot"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/lot"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}