I present to you my watercolor painting, inspired by the great Raphael Sanzio, approved and included in the festival “Raffaello – Urbino e il Montefeltro in acquerello” in 2020 in Urbino, Italy, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael, organized by the Association UrbinoInAcquerello in category Raphael, postponed to 2021 and exhibited in the Ducal Palace in Urbino, built in the mid-15th century for the governor Federico de Montefeltro, entitled “Adoration in Maggie`s Family” and size 25X35 cm, made in watercolor paper Fabriano Gentile.

I would like to clarify some of my interpretations of Raphael’s painting „The Adoration of the Magi”, which is in the Vatican Museum and I allow myself this play on words with the title of my watercolor in Bulgarian “Adoration in Maggie`s Family”.

There are three magi – Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, they are of royal descent, happily follow the star announcing the birth of the new king and she takes them to Bethlehem right in the house of the Infant and his mother. They worship the young boy and bring him their treasures: gold, incense (Boswellia, extracted from the rare Lebanese tree) and myrrh (myrrh).

The baby in my family is my grandson. His three admirers are his grandfather, grandmother and father.

His grandfather carries the gold, the first of the gifts: I interpret it as a symbol of protection and security, I hint at the bearer’s presence with the outstretched hand to the right of the picture, and the gold bowl is left on the ground, which can be interpreted as a wish for victory.

The grandmother knelt down and served him incense or frankincense, which I accept as a sign of the Earth, incl. the modern interpretation and reference – to own the land is to travel and get to know it. Again a play on words – Lebanon (incense) and the state of Lebanon, one of the countries to which our beautiful globe is delineated. I present this gift as the earth’s globe.

The father carries in himself and in his heart, not only in his hand myrrh, which I interpret as peace and love. His image is the waveform of the expression “I love you” – a drawing of the vibrations of the sound wave when it is pronounced “I love you”. Pure physics, conveying the strongest emotion, materialized through a symbol.

With the help of my family, friends and like-minded people in my painting “Adoration in Maggie`s Family”, we shot and created a short video that could be seen on my YouTube channel.

The original painting by Raphael “The Adoration of the Magi” can be viewed at the following link: https://www.kunst-gemalde.com/Die-Anbetung-der-K%C3%B6nige-Oddi-Altar-Renaissance-Meister- Raphael.html