Botticelli painted this piece for the altar in Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama's chapel in Santa Maria Novella around 1475.

[4][5] The altarpiece was commissioned for the altar of Gaspare's funerary chapel located in the Dominican monastery, Santa Maria Novella.

He is shown as an older man with white-grey hair who wears a blue robe and makes eye contact with the viewer.

[6] The figure who stands at the far right of the painting's foreground wears a yellow and gold-colored cloak and has been accepted by most scholars to be a self-portrait of the artist, Botticelli.

[4] [5][6] Gaspare di Zanobi's private chapel was dedicated on January 6, the feast day for the Epiphany, illustrating one of the many symbolic references found in the painting.

[6][5][4] The painting was passed down to the descendants of Gasparre di Zanobi del Lama and remained in its original location for nearly 100 years.

[1] He moved the painting off of the altar and to his palace, which was seized along with the rest of his property in 1575 due to his betrayal of Francesco I de' Medici (r. 1541–1587), who was the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

[6] The formal elements of Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi include solid, firm figures, and intense, saturated colors, especially reds.

[9] Examples of these exotic luxury goods were available in various church collections across the different Italian city-states, including the treasury of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

In other versions of this subject by various artists, different types of expensive luxury items were included in the story thereby reflecting Christian European fascination with the exotic.

[10][1][13] Another interpretation comes from Heinrich Ulmann's 1983 monograph on Botticelli in which he proposed that the central Magus is actually Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (r.1464–1469).

[14] The inclusion of the Medici portraits in Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi shows just how influential the family was in Italian society at the time.

[16]The attention to details, such as the garments rendering, shows the acquisition by the Florentine artist of the influences from the Flemish school at this point of his career.