Annunciation

Filippo Lippi's Annunciation from around 1445 depicts the moment Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the Son of God — the pivot of Christian history rendered as an intimate, domestic encounter. The Annunciation was one of the most frequently commissioned subjects in Florentine painting, required for the private chapels and oratories that families built into their palaces and villas. Lippi's treatment emphasizes the human intimacy of the divine encounter — Mary's slightly startled modesty, Gabriel's reverent approach, the lily of purity standing between them — while the architectural setting reflects the influence of Brunelleschi's rationalized space on Florentine pictorial construction. The work demonstrates his mature command of compositional clarity.

Lippi renders the scene with elegant linear draftsmanship, careful architectural perspective, and the delicate, luminous palette that distinguished his mature style from the more austere approach of his predecessor Masaccio.