Analysis of the Composition and Iconography
The three differently sized and shaped fragments are
brush drawings on prepared linen. It is important to note
that the fragments have been repaired extensively.12 This
mainly involved filling areas of loss around the fragments
as is particularly visible in one of the fragments. The
collector���s stamp of Thomas Lawrence, visible on the
lower fill of the centre fragment, shows the repair must
already have taken place by the early nineteenth century.
The original design is painted with brush and brown ink
and includes mixtures of white lead and umber tempera
medium. Examination under ultraviolet light, strong
transmitted light and raking light revealed traces of
gypsum plaster and glue. Typically for the late work of
Botticelli and his workshop, they sit on a finely woven
canvas.13
What is not clear is whether the cloth was ���put on a
panel��� or ���stretch[ed] taut on a frame���.14 The traces
of glue found through chemical analysis suggest that
the cloth was originally attached to a wooden panel.
Many scholars have connected the fragments with the
unfinished Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, which was
made from four horizontal poplar panels covered with
linen.15 Recent X-ray analysis has even supported a direct
relation and the measurements fit with the dimensions
of the unfinished Uffizi Adoration.16 Yet, this evidence is
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