Title of Art: Annunciation
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Art Form: Painting
Date of Composition: 1472-1475
Event: Annunciation
Subjects: Mary, Mother of God
Ritual Pose/Object: book
Exhibit Institution: Le Gallerie degli Uffizi (The Uffizi)
Exhibit Location: Florence, Italy
VM Image #: 0008
Photographer: Shala Graham
Date of Photograph: January 7, 2023
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Annunciation of Mary, set in a garden typical of an elegant Renaissance palazzo. The angel's shadow appears on the lawn. Leonardo's study of birds is reflected in the realism of the angel's wings. Mary's right arm seems excessively long but the painting was intended to be viewed from below and from the right; the painting probably hung in a side altar in the original location at St. Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto in Florence. The painting was brought to the Uffizi in 1867 from the church of San Bartolomeo 'a Monteoliveto in Florence. Nothing is known about its original location or who commissioned the painting.
Depicting events found in Luke 1:26–38, the scene shows the archangel Gabriel kneeling before Mary, who faces him from behind a lectern at which she was reading. He brings her greetings of God's favor and the announcement that he had chosen her to bear the Messiah. The Annunciation has been illustrated hundreds of times in art, by many prominent artists. As the moment of the Incarnation, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed the humble, obedient Mary, it remains one of the church's most sacred events. Artists almost always show Mary reading, a nod to the long-held belief that the Magnificat, her powerful prayer (Luke 1:46–55), reflected her deep literacy in the Scriptures.