“This Hall Has the Look of a City”: Display Strategies for Wax Ex-Votos and Botticelli’s Compositions for the Adoration of the Magi

Abstract

This paper suggests that the deliberate, structured way in which wax ex-votos were arranged in the Florentine church of Santissima Annunziata should not be overlooked as a factor that contributed to the new compositional format employed by Sandro Botticelli for paintings of the Adoration of the Magi from the 1470s. This format went on to influence the work of other artists including Ghirlandaio and Leonardo da Vinci. Key members of the Medici family, including Piero and Lorenzo, were active at Santissima Annunziata, as both votaries and operai. This paper argues that it was Botticelli’s links to, and desire to impress, the Medici as patrons that may have contributed to using the ex-votos of Santissima Annunziata as an inspiration.

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