The Adoration of the Magi was a common theme in Renaissance Florentine art. This painting was commissioned by a banker connected to the house of Medici, Gaspare di Zanobi del Lama, for a chapel at the Santa Maria Novella church, which has since been destroyed. Botticelli painted many members of the Medici family into the scene, including del Lama himself, Cosimo de Medici, Piero and Giovanni Medici (Cosimo’s sons), and Giuliano and Lorenzo (Cosimo’s grandsons). Although the four eldest of the Medicis were already deceased when Botticelli painted this piece, Lorenzo effectively ruled Florence. Botticelli also included a portrait of himself, in the yellow robe in the bottom right corner of the painting.