The Annunciation

Tommaso del Mazza, a Florentine painter active in the late fourteenth century whose identity was only recently established by modern scholarship, created this Annunciation around 1390. The Annunciation—Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary—was one of the most frequently depicted subjects in Gothic art, marking the moment of the Incarnation that initiated Christian salvation. Now at the J. Paul Getty Museum, this panel displays the refined elegance of late Trecento Florentine painting as it transitioned toward the International Gothic style.

Executed in egg tempera and gold leaf on panel, this Annunciation employs the standard Gothic bilateral composition with Gabriel and the Virgin separated by a vertical axis. Tommaso's figures display the elongated proportions and flowing draperies that characterize the emerging International Gothic manner, with a richly tooled gold ground and delicate decorative details.