The Adoration of the Magi is perhaps one of Leonardo da Vinci's strangest and most fertile compositions. By combining figures of pleading old men and armed horsemen, he transformed a banal biblical subject into a scene from human history. At the same time, he took the technique of non finito to its extreme. The figures and architectural elements boldly delineated and filled out in earth colors on the five boards that make up this panel anticipate the type of sketchwork that will characterize modern art. This picture is remarkable for its extreme concentration and power. Leornardo's contemporaries erroneously assumed that it was unfinished.