poor ginevra. i suppose we'll never be sure, but we do know she was so beautiful and so good that even the ruler lorenzo de medici wrote sonnets to her. ginevra wrote poetry herself. all that's left is one line. "i am a tiger." "i am a tiger." i see what she means. it's a long way from that classic beauty to this huge, fantastic dancing lady. how did it happen? let's investigate. this painting is the adoration of the magi. there they are-- the three wise men of the bible kneeling before the virgin and child on a carpet of flowers as decorative as a medieval tapestry-- a traditional nativity scene. this magnificent circular painting is a visual detective story. there are all sorts of clues here to show you what happens to art when the world moves from one kind of time to another. it is a colorful bridge between the world of the middle ages and the renaissance world. two monks painted this in the early 15th century. one was so gentle and devout, he was nicknamed fra angelico-- angelic brother. the ot

the juniper is the same word in italian almost as the word for ginevra.it's also a symbol of chastity. on the legend are the words, in lati "beauty adorns virtue." what that virtue may have cost ginevra has been made immortal in paint. gielgud: for nearly a year just before he left florence, leonardo worked on an altarpiece for a convent. it was the largest commission to be given to him during those early years. but leonardo was never to finish this work, the adoration of the magi. more than 60 people as well as 60 animals are included in the composition. the architectural conception was wonderfully designed to include so many figures without overcrowding. all the figures, both human and animal, are caught in attitudes of awe, repose, or vivid action. the painting was almost completed when leonardo abruptly stopped work on it and left florence to live in milan in 1482. why did he never finish his commission? the final task needed in a painting of this kind is to lay in the colors, but this he did not seem to wish to do, fearing perhaps that his technical