Probably by Benedetto Bonfigli, The Adoration of the Kings, and Christ on the Cross

The beginning and end of Christ’s life on earth are juxtaposed in this small panel painting. On the left, the Virgin Mary sits with the infant Christ on her lap, in front of the stable where he was born – you can see the ox and the donkey looking on with interest from behind the wattle partition. Saint Joseph, in yellow, sits on the ground in the left-hand corner. In the middle, three figures present gifts to Christ.

This is the Adoration of the Kings (Matthew 2: 11), when three kings from the East followed a star to Bethlehem to find the King of the Jews. In the Bible they are described only as ‘wise men’, but they were traditionally depicted as kings to emphasise that Christ was king of all the earth, as here and in The Adoration of the Kings by Vincenzo Foppa. Touchingly, the king at the front cups the Child’s feet in his hand. On the right, in a barren landscape, the adult Christ is shown on the Cross, eyes closed and head slumped in death.

This painting could be a part of a predella, although it is unusual to show the Adoration and the Crucifixion in a single painting. It may be a complete small picture for private devotion, like ‘Mystic Nativity’ by Sandro Botticelli.

Although painted in the second half of the fifteenth century, the style of this picture harks back to the graceful style of Italian painters of the first half of the century, such as Gentile da Fabriano, whose famous Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi, Florence) had a big influence on later depictions of the subject. Benedetto Bonfigli, the artist, worked mainly in Perugia – from 1454 till his death he worked on the Priors' Chapel in the Town Hall there. He has more in common with painters such as Fra Filippo Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli, both of whom had connections with Perugia, than with artists of the later generation, such as Pietro Perugino.