Annunciation

Biagio d'Antonio was a Florentine painter active in the late fifteenth century who worked on commissions ranging from altarpieces to cassone panels. This Annunciation for the Accademia di San Luca in Rome reflects the standard Florentine workshop production of devotional images that served churches and confraternities across central Italy. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

The panel follows the traditional Florentine Annunciation composition with Gabriel approaching the Virgin in an architectural setting, rendered with the clear draftsmanship and bright coloring of the late quattrocento workshop tradition.