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The Annunciation

ca. 1485–92
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 952
One of the most celebrated paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection, this depiction of the Annunciation unfolds in a classicizing architectural interior rendered with one-point perspective to create the illusion of depth, a technique achieved in early fifteenth-century Florence. The incised lines visible on the panel's surface are evidence of Botticelli’s working method to create the complex composition. A row of pillars divides the space occupied by the Angel Gabriel from the intimate bed chamber of the Virgin, who kneels in humility as she receives his divine message. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger work. While the identity of the patron is not known, the painting was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Annunciation
  • Artist: Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
  • Date: ca. 1485–92
  • Medium: Tempera and gold on wood
  • Dimensions: 7 1/2 x 12 3/8 in. (19.1 x 31.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.74
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

Audio

Cover Image for 4795. The Annunciation

4795. The Annunciation

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KANTER: One of the most precious objects in the Lehman Collection is this small annunciation by Sandro Botticelli, probably painted in the mid-1480s. It shows the Virgin at the moment of receiving the angelic message, kneeling in an attitude of humility, inside her bedchamber—you see a view back towards her bed and the cabinets and cupboards behind, with the linen curtain in front of her just drawn back to allow you to see her reading, probably from a book of hours, saying her devotions. The angel flies in from the left, just beginning to kneel, delivering his message of grace. And behind him is a view—an imaginary view we presume—of a classical ideal Italian architectural setting of the fifteenth century. I don't expect any patrician house ever looked quite as remarkable as this, but I expect every patrician wished they had a house that looked quite as remarkable as this.

More Artwork

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The Last Communion of Saint Jerome
Workshop of Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
ca. 1491–1503(?)
Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius
Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
ca. 1500
The Last Communion of Saint Jerome
Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
early 1490s
The Madonna of Humility, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà
Bartolomeo Vivarini (Italian, active Venice 1450–91)
ca. 1465
Saint Anthony the Abbot in the Wilderness
Osservanza Master (Italian, Siena, active second quarter 15th century)
ca. 1435

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