Epifania

A large black-chalk drawing by Michelangelo, made in Rome in the early 1550s and assembled from twenty-six sheets into a composition roughly 2.32 by 1.65 metres, technically a cartoon (a full-scale preparatory drawing) rather than a finished painting. Its title translates as Epiphany. It shows the Virgin Mary with the Christ child positioned between her legs, an unidentified male figure, possibly Saint Joseph, being pushed away by Mary at right, the infant John the Baptist in front of him, and another unidentified adult figure to Mary's left, with background figures left largely obscured. Once read as a depiction of the Three Kings, the composition is now generally interpreted as showing Christ's siblings mentioned in the Gospels, in support of the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. It entered the British Museum's collection in 1895. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/