La Vierge de l'Annonciation

The Annunciate Virgin — the panel depicting Mary alone at the moment of Gabriel's announcement — was often produced as a diptych companion to a panel of the Annunciate Angel, with the pair displayed on either side of a domestic altar or private devotional space. Taddeo di Bartolo's version isolates the Virgin in a format that emphasises her prayerful receptivity, the folded hands and downcast eyes the standard iconographic language for Mary's fiat. Such single-figure devotional panels were among the most intimate products of the Sienese workshop tradition.

Taddeo renders Mary's face with the characteristic Sienese emphasis on fine linear brow and lidded eyes inherited from Simone Martini's influence. The deep blue mantle is built through multiple ultramarine glazes over a grey underpainting, achieving the jewel-dark colour standard in high-end Sienese devotional work.