The ''Annunciation Triptych'' is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian late Gothic artist Lorenzo Monaco, now housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy.

History

The triptych was commissioned for the church of San Procolo of Florence, where Renaissance art historian

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

saw it, but attributed it to

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

. It was recognized as a work by Lorenzo Monaco by Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle in 1864. It has been variously dated from 1408 to 1418. The work had originally different cusps (perhaps with heads of prophets) and a predella, which is now lost.

Description

The painting includes compartments divided into two panels surmounted by cusps, each sharing a golden background. The central painting depicts the Virgin, on a throne barely under her dress visible, on the right, and a hovering Angel of the Annunciation on the left. Behind her are parts of a house, including a double mullioned window, while next to her head is the Holy Ghost dove. The drapes feature intricate arabesques, perhaps influenced by the

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art that began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by the ...

style introduced by Gherardo Starnina and

Lorenzo Ghiberti Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptister ...

Sources

External links

Page at Florence museums website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Annunciation Triptych Paintings by Lorenzo Monaco 1410s paintings Paintings of the Annunciation Triptychs Paintings in the Galleria dell'Accademia