Single figures under an arcade with scalloped niches make up the subject of the Magi seeking and adoring the infant Christ.
Child is on the lap of the virgin, who is seated full face, while an angel introduces the worshippers.
Another imperfect figure standing with crossed legs evidently represents a shepherd.
The spandrels are filled with eagles displayed, and above is a panel containing vines, vases, &c, within an acanthus border of a style suggesting the fifth century.
The work betrays the hand of a meritorious sculptor; in the figure of the Virgin there is a certain majesty, and the drapery is carefully treated. But more than one detail removes the composition from the earlist period of Christian art.
An angel intervenes between the magi and the Child; the fact that the scene passes indoors is indicated by curtains upon a rod beneath the arches.
M. Bayet remarks that the appearence of the Virgin, so aloof and detached, recalls the Adoration in St Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna;
while the separation of the actors in a single by the columns of arcade under which they stand is a characteristic of sarcofagi in the same Adriatic city, perhaps suggested by sculptures of Syrian origin.
