Located in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the “Adoration of the Magi” was painted around the year 1500 by the great northern Italian painter Andrea Mantegna. Mantegna’s daring composition which encloses the Holy Family and all three magi in a shallow foreground space against a neutral black background prefigures the work of another great northern painter named Caravaggio. In Mantegna’s painting, the old king presents gold coins in a delicate Chinese porcelain cup, while the younger, bearded king presents a Turkish censer containing frankincense, and the Moorish king presents myrrh in an agate cup. Buona visione!