The Annunciation
A kneeling angel and Mary at prayer before a loggia and a cypress garden, an Annunciation painted in perspective by a Florentine artist around 1500. Full commentary ↓
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The Annunciation is a tempera and gold painting by Maestro Esiguo (ca. 1500–10) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 41.3 × 37.1 cm.
In the pictureAgainst a red-roofed loggia and a garden with cypress trees, an angel in green with red wings kneels at the left holding a lily, while at the right Mary in a blue mantle turns, holding a book. The floor is patterned tile, and there is a prayer desk at the lower right. A dove descends from the sky.
Background"Maestro Esiguo" means "the slender master," a nickname given to an unnamed painter of thin, elongated figures. Recently he has sometimes been identified as Alesso, son of Benozzo Gozzoli. The perspective in which the loggia arches and floor tiles converge on a single point, and the cypress garden, are the standard stage for a 15th-century Florentine Annunciation.
Puzzle tipThe picture divides into the green robe, the blue mantle, the red roof, and the tiled floor. Assemble the two faces and the lily first, then build the frame from the arches of the loggia and the straight lines of the floor tiles. Fill in the cypresses and sky along the top. 100 pieces is a good fit.
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Tempera and gold on wood
- Dimensions
- 41.3 x 37.1 cm
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
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