# The Appearance of the Star [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GIOVANNI DA MODENA]() - Date: 1401-1450 - Technique: Fresco ## Commentary From the beginning of the fifteenth century on, painters increasingly shifted their focus away from the adoration of the child in Bethlehem and onto the kings' western journey. The journey gave them a greater opportunity to include narrative motifs and develop a chronological sequence in their picture. One striking example \(before the famous <A onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/g/gozzoli/3magi/index.html'\)" HREF="/html/g/gozzoli/3magi/index.html">cycle by Benozzo Gozzoli</A> in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence\) is the Journey of the Magi on the south wall of the Bolognini chapel in San Petronio in Bologna, painted in about 1412. There the painter Giovanni da Modena created a cycle in eight scenes to supplement an eschatological program that includes depictions of heaven and hell. He first shows us the kings setting out, then the appearance of the star. A total of six scenes, distributed over two registers, are required to get the caravan to Bethlehem, whereas the actual adoration and presentation of gifts is dealt with in a single panel. This is then followed by a scene rarely depicted, the kings' return journey by sea, undertaken out of a desire not to have to see Herod again. ## Related artworks - [St Sebastian]() - [The Return of the Magi]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()