The Virgin of the Annunciation

Domenico Ghirlandaio's Virgin of the Annunciation from around 1475 is a monofigural panel showing only Mary's side of the Annunciation scene, probably the right panel of a diptych or triptych whose corresponding Gabriel panel has either been separated or lost. Ghirlandaio at this date was in his early career, still absorbing the Florentine altarpiece tradition before the great fresco cycles that would define his mature reputation. The isolated Virgin Annunciate — Mary interrupted in her reading or prayer by Gabriel's arrival, turning toward the viewer in a gesture that could be aimed at either the absent angel or the devotional viewer — was a type that circulated as an independent devotional image in Italy and, through the Flemish export tradition, across Europe.

Ghirlandaio renders the Virgin with the clear, naturalistic drawing that would characterise his mature figure style: the face is specific and characterful rather than conventionally idealised, the posture communicating physical reality. The book or prayer text whose reading has been interrupted is handled as a concrete object with material specificity. The drapery shows the beginnings of Ghirlandaio's command of fabric as an architectural element in composition.