An Altarpiece from the St. Moritz Church [left wing]: The Annunciation

The Annunciation forming the left wing of the St. Moritz Church Altarpiece in Mittenwalde (1514) belongs to Cranach's production of altarpiece commissions for the churches of the Mark Brandenburg and surrounding region — communities that sought the quality and authority of Wittenberg's leading workshop for their most important devotional commissions. The Annunciation — the moment the angel Gabriel told Mary she would bear the Son of God — was among the most theologically important subjects in Christian devotion, depicting the beginning of the Incarnation and Mary's willing acceptance of her role. The Angel's announcement and Mary's response ('Let it be done to me according to your word') was doctrinally significant for both Catholic and, with some theological adjustment, Protestant theology. Cranach's treatment of the subject would have followed his established devotional formula: the angel in dynamic motion contrasting with Mary's composed reception of the divine message, the scene set in an architectural or landscape space that provided specific visual context for the sacred encounter.

Lucas Cranach the Elder employs decorative elegance and precise linear draftsmanship to convey the spiritual gravity of the subject. The treatment of the figures shows careful study of earlier masters, while the palette and lighting create the devotional atmosphere the subject demands.