Description
This first famous work by the 20-year-old Renaissance master is not yet what one might call characteristic of Da Vinci’s character or style. The composition follows a centuries-old model, with the angel on the left, the Virgin on the right and a lectern in the middle; the scene is set within an architectural frame that opens onto a landscape. The kneeling angel is magnificently youthful, with a high forehead, stylized wings, rich clothing and a lily. The Virgin, surprised while reading, raises her hand in a gesture of astonishment and reveals a finely featured face that some have described as cold. Her pose, with her knees stretched evenly beneath ample, flowing drapery, gives her a strong monumental presence.
In the painting, Mary sits on a paved terrace and reads at a richly decorated marble desk. She expresses her surprise at the visit of the young Archangel Gabriel, who explains that she will be the mother of the Son of God.
The painting depicts a flourishing enclosed garden in front of what appears to be a Renaissance palace, evoking the hortus conclusus, a reference to Mary’s purity. The Archangel Gabriel kneels before the Virgin and offers her a lily. The Virgin responds from her seat behind a lectern, where she had been reading. Leonardo has placed the traditional religious subject in a natural, earthly setting. The angel has a solid physical presence, suggested by his shadow on the grass and the folds of his clothing, which seem to reflect studies from life. His wings, too, are based on those of a powerful bird of prey.
An extraordinary twilight light shapes the scene and emphasizes the dark forms of the trees in the distant background, dominated by the blended colors so beloved by the artist. The architectural elements are drawn according to the rules of perspective, with a central vanishing point. Some anomalies can be found in the figure of the Virgin, whose right arm appears too long—perhaps a reflection of Leonardo’s early studies in optics, which may have taken into account a lateral viewpoint (from the right)—and too low, due to the painting’s original location above a side altar in a church.
The painting was brought to the Uffizi in 1867 from the church of San Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto, on the outskirts of Porta San Frediano in Florence; nothing is known about its original location or who commissioned it. The Annunciation is generally considered one of Leonardo’s early works, painted while he was still working in Andrea del Verrocchio’s studio. The master copied an invention by Verrocchio: the form of the lectern, inspired by the tomb of Piero the Gouty in the church of San Lorenzo, Florence.
The Annunciation ranks No. 57 on the list of famous paintings