The Annunciation

In the pictureAgainst an arcade lined with gray stone columns, the angel Gabriel kneels on the left holding a white lily, and Mary, in blue, bends forward beside a curtain on the right. The empty space between them is filled with the perspective lines of the columns and floor tiles. The picture is a small wooden panel, 31 cm wide and 19 cm high.

BackgroundThe Annunciation is the scene in which an angel tells Mary that she will conceive Jesus, and it is one of the subjects Renaissance painters depicted most often. Botticelli painted this scene in several sizes around 1490, and this small panel appears to have been part of the lower band (the predella) of a large altarpiece or made for private devotion. Precise architectural perspective and the soft curves of the figures sharing one picture is typical of Botticelli.

Puzzle tipWith so many gray architectural pieces it may look hard at first, but the straight lines of the floor tiles and columns all converge on a single vanishing point, so the slant of each line tells you where it goes. Fit the colored pieces first, such as the angel's pinkish robe, Mary's blue robe, and the curtain at upper right, then fill in the architecture by the direction of the lines.