The Annunciation

The Annunciation on the left wall is dominated by the grandiose prospect of an arched corridor. No other Umbrian depictions of the Annunciation in this period present anything like this elaborate architecture or the vast landscape beyond. Pinturicchio set off the area of the foreground, in which the confrontation between the angel and the Virgin takes place, by narrow sections of wall on either side, each with a different structure. On the right the painter’s self-portrait hangs on the wall beneath a tall barred window; on the left there is a closed door with an off-centre oculus above. The white dove of the Holy Ghost descends along a diagonal ray of gold beamed down from the heaven of the cloud bank toward the Virgin on the right.