Annunciation

The Master of Marradi was a Florentine painter active around 1490-1510 who takes his name from works in the town of Marradi in the Tuscan Apennines. This Annunciation for the Courtauld Gallery reflects the provincial Tuscan market for devotional panels produced by minor Florentine workshops. The tempera-on-panel medium required a carefully gessoed surface and was painted in fine, precise layers, yielding a luminous, jewel-like surface of great durability.

The panel follows the standard Florentine Annunciation format with clear architectural perspective and careful figure drawing, rendered in the precise but somewhat formulaic manner of a competent workshop production.