The Adoration of the Magi, unpublished as far as I know, was perhaps originally the preparatory sketch or model, like the other paintings in the same series with "stories from the life of Christ", for a larger, hitherto unidentified composition. Be that as it may, the central part of the present painting is an identical reproduction of the canvas with the same subject which, in a series of other paintings by Giordano with "stories of Mary" belonging to the Spanish National Heritage (Ferrari-Scavizzi, 2000, A428-A433, fig. 563; L. Giordano and Spain, 2002, pp. 289-90) and exhibited between 2002 and 2003, is the subject of a series of other paintings by Giordano with "stories of Mary" in the Spanish National Heritage. 289-90) and exhibited between the Casita del Escorial, the Casita del Pardo, the Royal Palace in Madrid and the Royal Palace of the Almudaina in Palma de Mallorca, would have been painted around 1688, thus in the same years as the works by the Neapolitan painter that formed part of the collection of the IX Duke of Santisteban.
Nicola Spinosa, April 2010