The Annunciation: Virgin Mary (detail) Fresco, 1481 by Botticelli, Sandro (1445-1510) Uffizi gallery
Sandro Botticelli’s painting is a hallmark of the Florentine Renaissance in the fifteenth century, during the age of Medici rule under Lorenzo the Magnificent. This fresco or wall painting of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary originally hung over the entrance of San Martino della Scala, a hospital in Florence for those stricken with the plague. It was taken down in 1920 for restoration, and subsequently moved to the Uffizi gallery in Florence. This detail of the surviving fresco depicts the Virgin in the privacy of her bedroom at Nazareth, while she kneels in prayer at her wooden prayer desk (prie dieu). It also heralds the very moment of the Incarnation when the Archangel Gabriel announced that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Jewish messiah and Son of God (Luke 1:28-35). Mary lowers her eyes and gestures her humble acceptance of and submission to the will of God, responding with the words, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her (Luke 1:38). The momentous event in Christian salvation history is observed on 25 March each year with the Feast of the Annunciation. Botticelli conveys all the delicate beauty and elegant grace of the Virgin with a characteristically Florentine Renaissance aesthetic. Mary’s red-orange hair cascades from beneath a transparent silk veil; and her red velvet dress under the blue cape, echoes the fashionable clothing for ladies of the day.
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