Annunciation

In a loggia of columns and arches, the angel appears to Mary. Shown in profile, he occupies the larger part of the painting, his richly painted wings extending out through the colonnade, their upper tips marking the centre of the picture. He declaims to the Virgin, ‘the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee’ (Luke 1, v. 35). She, demure, with a dove fluttering above her head in a burst of golden light, inclines towards him and responds, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word’ (Luke 1, v. 38). Beyond them the picture space extends into the Virgin’s chamber, and further, hidden space is hinted at by the bed curtain there which serves also to set off Gabriel’s nimbus.

Outside the loggia is a delicately painted garden, enclosed by a palisade, symbolic of Mary’s virginity. Carved in a roundel above the centre column is a half-length effigy of Isaiah, who had prophesied the birth of a child to a virgin. The pink entablature of the loggia points to the second reference to the Old Testament, in the top left corner, where Adam and Eve are expelled from Paradise.

Undoubtedly Angelico’s first truly great painting, this Annunciation formed a prototype for a noble line of derivatives.