Magi Chapel

Its walls are almost entirely covered by a famous cycle of frescoes by the Renaissance master Benozzo Gozzoli, painted around 1459 for the Medici family, the effective rulers of Florence.

Inside, the chapel is divided into two juxtaposed squares: a large hall and a raised rectangular apse with an altar and two small lateral sacristies.

Begun around 1449–50, the chapel was probably completed around 1459 with the precious ceiling of inlaid wood, painted and generously gilded by Pagno di Lapo Portigiano, according to Michelozzo's design.

The chapel is famous for the series of wall paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli, with the Angels in Adoration in the rectangular apse and the Journey of the Magi in the large hall.

In the apse, the side walls are painted with saints and angels in adoration, where Gozzoli followed the style of his master, Fra Angelico.

This sheer craftsmanship is evident not just in the precious materials of jewelry, fabrics, and harnesses, but even in the trees laden with fruit, the meadows spangled with flowers, the variegated plumage of the birds, and the multicolored wings of the angels.

Hosts of angels sing and adore while the magnificent procession of the Three Kings approaches Bethlehem, accompanied by their respective entourages as they enjoy the scene of a noble hunting party with falcons and felines along the way.

He is preceded by a page in blue with a leopard on his horse - this figure is a scherzo, a joke embedded in a painting, representing Castruccio Castracani, Duca di Lucca, according to C.F.

It is thought by some that the three pages behind him represent Piero's daughters, Nannina, Bianca and Maria, while others argue that the faces of those young women are more likely to be amongst the rest of the Medici portraits.

With rich Tuscan landscapes filling the rest of the pictorial space, this fresco was designed like contemporary tapestries, a new type of courtly art destined for wealthy patrons.