Sassetta: The Journey of the Magi Holiday Cards

Description

Our holiday cards reproduce a detail of a painting by Sienese artist Sassetta, also known as Stefano di Giovanni (Italian, active by 1423, died 1450). The original painting was executed in tempera and gold on wood around 1435, and is now housed in the Museum’s collection. Greeting: Joyous Christmas.

20 cards and 20 envelopes per box. 6 1/4'' x 4 7/8''.

Art History

Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni) was among the most original artists of 15th-century Siena. While keeping alive the religious ideals of the trecento masters and the poetic feeling of the late Middle Ages, Sassetta made his own use of the International Gothic decorative style and of contemporary Florentine movements, combining them into a personal manner expressive of his own mystical imagination. Sassetta’s The Journey of the Magi panel originally formed the upper part of an Adoration of the Magi, of which the lower section shows the magi presenting their gifts to the Christ Child. The Museum's fragment shows the magi and their attendants on their way to Bethlehem, and is one of Sassetta's most poetic works. The star at the lower right originally hung over the figures of the Madonna and Child.