Annunciation with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew

Filippino Lippi's Annunciation with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew (1485), now at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, was painted for a Neapolitan patron at a moment when Lippi was expanding his practice beyond Florence. The inclusion of Saints John the Baptist and Andrew alongside the Annunciation scene follows the sacra conversazione format common in altarpieces, where local or dedicatory saints frame the central devotional image. Lippi's handling of the Annunciation at this date shows the influence of his master Botticelli in the graceful figure types, while his architectural settings begin to reveal the fascination with classical ruins and complex spatial arrangements that would mark his mature style.

Lippi distributes the Annunciation's protagonists across a carefully constructed architectural space while positioning the flanking saints within subsidiary niches or zones, creating a hierarchical arrangement that guides devotional attention from the periphery to the central divine encounter. His line is elegant and his drapery complex but controlled.