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Annunciation
Leonardo da Vinci · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
- Date
- c. 1472–1476
- Dimensions
- 98 x 217 cm
- Medium
- Oil and tempera on panel
- Location
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
This Annunciation, painted in Florence when Leonardo was barely twenty and still in Verrocchio’s workshop, is one of his earliest works. The angel Gabriel kneels in a garden to tell the Virgin Mary that she will bear the son of God.
A closer look
The scene unfolds in front of a Renaissance villa, with a misty landscape of trees, mountains and a harbour stretching into the distance. Gabriel’s wings were modelled on those of a real bird, and the meadow is full of carefully observed flowers. Mary raises one hand in surprise while resting the other on a book. Some details, such as her slightly too long right arm, show a young artist still mastering perspective.
History of the painting
For centuries the panel hung in the monastery of San Bartolomeo at Monteoliveto, just outside Florence, and nobody connected it with Leonardo. When it entered the Uffizi in 1867 it was catalogued as a work by Domenico Ghirlandaio; only gradually did scholars recognise it as one of Leonardo's earliest paintings, made while he was still in Verrocchio's workshop. Technical studies have since shown his fingerprints in the paint and the way he corrected the composition as he worked.
