Zanobi Strozzi, 'The Annunciation', about 1440-5

The Annunciation

Zanobi Strozzi

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Archangel Gabriel has just landed – his gilded peacock-like wings still raised – interrupting the Virgin Mary from her reading. She stares at her visitor in terror and gathers her cloak around her in fear. This is the Annunciation, the moment Gabriel told the Virgin that she would conceive the Son of God. The Holy Ghost who would impregnate her is shown here as a dove, with a gilded halo, flying in above Gabriel’s head.

Strozzi has included Gabriel’s greeting in gold in the border of his pink dress, ‘Ave Maria’ (‘Hail Mary!’). This picture is a variant of paintings of the Annunciation by Strozzi’s teacher, the Florentine painter and friar, Fra Angelico. This panel was cut in half some time before it entered the National Gallery’s collection. The two halves are now reunited but the original picture probably also included a scene showing the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, as can be seen in some of Fra Angelico’s versions.

In-depth

The Annunciation is celebrated on 25 March, which in Renaissance Florence, as in several other Italian cities, was the first day of the new year. It is the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would miraculously conceive the Son of God, Jesus Christ; the beginning of the Christian calendar.

Strozzi’s colourful and arresting panel highlights the drama of the moment. Gilded wings still raised, the Archangel Gabriel has just landed, interrupting the Virgin from her reading. Arms crossed – a sign of humility – he bows gently towards her. Terrified and shocked, she clasps at her cloak, ready to pull it around her. At the same time she leans in to get a closer look at the heavenly visitor. The silence of the scene is broken by the words embroidered in gold at the hem of Gabriel’s pink dress, his greeting as recorded in the Gospel of Gospel: Ave Maria (‘Hail Mary‘). The dove above Gabriel’s halo, who has flown in on golden rays, represents the Holy Ghost, which will impregnate the Virgin.

The action takes place in a covered arcade outside the Virgin’s house, which looks onto a garden enclosed by a low wall and a trellis bearing white flowers. In the centre of the garden is a well. On the lawn a translucent glass vase holds a bouquet of lilies. The enclosed garden, the clear waters of the well and the white lilies are all symbols of the Virgin’s purity. The lilies are improbably tall, rising to almost the height of the house. They were probably added at the last minute, perhaps at the request of the patron. Beyond the garden is a mountain dotted with buildings and topped with a church and in the distance a series of mountainous towns.

The artist’s name, ’ZANOBI', is hidden among the gilded foliage pattern in the border of the Virgin’s blue cloak. Strozzi was the pupil of the friar-painter Fra Angelico, who painted several versions of this scene, including one in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. This picture closely resembles those works. Fra Angelico’s versions include an extended landscape to the left of the picture, visible beyond Gabriel’s wings. This lush garden of flowers and fruit trees is clearly supposed to represent the Garden of Eden because it includes a scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve.

The National Gallery purchased Strozzi’s picture as two separate panels in 1894: it had been cut in half at some point in the nineteenth century. It was later joined together to restore its original appearance but the picture had also been cut down on all sides. This explains why we can’t see Gabriel’s foot or the tops of the arches. It is likely that it too once featured a scene of the expulsion from Eden but that this is now lost. Fra Angelico’s versions also include a predella with scenes of the life of the Virgin, which has also probably been lost from Strozzi’s picture.

The red and white circles that look like targets on the pillars are the coat of arms of the Florentine Lanfredini family. Technical analysis has shown that these were painted over a coat of dried varnish, suggesting they were added after the painting was finished. Coats of arms were usually painted on a picture’s frame, normally near the predella. It’s possible that the coat of arms on the pillars were added when the original predella and frame – now lost – were removed. The picture was probably made for the church of San Francesco al Monte where Glorgio Vasari, the sixteenth-century artist and biographer of many Italian artists, recorded seeing it.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Annunciation
Artist: Zanobi Strozzi
Artist dates: 1412 - 1468
Date made: about 1440-5
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 104.5 × 142 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1894
Inventory number: NG1406
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Recorded in Francesco al Monte, Florence, from at least 1517, probably as early as 1455, and in several guidebooks from 1584 until 1805. Mentioned in an inventory of 14 October 1709, when it is one of three paintings described as being in the sacristy; it remained there until the convent was suppressed in 1810. Almost certainly identifiable with the painting removed in 1810 from San Francesco/San Salvatore al Monte, Florence, to San Marco during the Napoleonic suppressions. According to a label from the back (now in the NG archives), written in French, NG 1406 is the painting mentioned by Vasari as being in San Francesco/San Salvatore al Monte outside the gates of San Miniato and imported from Rome in 1818 by Samuel Woodburn. No. 10 of an undated Woodburn MS inventory (in the NG archives); Woodburn sale, 9 June 1860 (lot 72), bought by F. Nieuwenhuys. Anon. sale, Christie’s, 29 May 1869 (lot 71 – cutting on the back now in the NG archives), bought in. C-J. Nieuwenhuys sale, Brussels, 4 May 1883 (lot 5), bought by Bourgeois. Purchased from Bourgeois, apparently through Lawrie and Co., 1894.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, London 2003; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2011

Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500

The National Gallery (London)

6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011

Bibliography

1550

G. Vasari, Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, Florence 1550
1860

Christie & Manson, Catalogue of the Very Celebrated & Valuable Series of Capital Pictures, by the Greatest Early Italian Masters: Formed… by… the Late Samuel Woodburn, Esq., London, 9 June 1860
1864

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy: From the Second to the Sixteenth Century, 3 vols, London 1864
1869

Christie's, Catalogue of a Valuable Assemblage of Old Pictures, London, 29 May 1869
1878

G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
1883

Collection Nieuwenhuys', La Chronique des arts, 19, 1887
1895

London, National Gallery Archive, NG17/5: Annual Report of the Director of the National Gallery to the Treasury for the Year 1894, 1895
1903

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1924

F. Schottmüller, Fra Angelico da Fiesole, revised edn, Stuttgart 1924
1950

L. Collobi Ragghianti, 'Domencio di Michelino', Critica d'arte, XXXI, 1950, pp. 363-5
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1955

J.R. Spencer, 'Spatial Imagery of the Annunciation in Fifteenth-Century Florence', Art Bulletin, XXXVII, 1955, pp. 273-80
1955

U. Baldini, Mostra delle opere del Beato Angelico nel quinto centenario della morte 1455-1955 (exh. cat. Museo di San Marco, May - September 1955), Florence 1955
1958

M. Salmi, Il Beato Angelico, Spoleto 1958
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1963

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Work, with an Index of Places: Florentine School, 2 vols, New York 1963
1964

S. Orlandi, Beato Angelico, Florence 1964
1974

J. Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico, 2nd edn, London 1974
1976

P.J. Cardile, Fra Angelico and His Workshop at San Domenicoin Fiesole (1420-1435): The Development of His Style and the Formation of His Workshop, Phd Thesis, Yale University 1976
1976

B. Santi, Neri di Bicci. Le Ricordanze, Pisa 1976
1976

M. Boskovits, Monographien der Abegg-Stiftung Bern, vol. 2, Un'adorazione dei magi e gli inizi dell'Angelico, Bern 1976
1980

D.C. Ahl, 'Fra Angelico: A New Chronology for the 1420s', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, XLIII, 1980, pp. 360-81
1980

A.M. Maetzke, Arte nell'Aretino second mostra di restauri dal 1975 al 1979 (exh. cat. Church of San Francesco, 3 November 1979 - 13 January 1980), Florence 1980
1984

J. Ruda, 'Style and Patronage in the 1440's: Two Altarpieces of the Coronation of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XXVIII/3, 1984, pp. 363-84
1985

M. Casini Wanrooij and A. Padoa Rizzo, 'Appunti sulla pittura fiorentina del Quattrocento: Benozzo Gozzoli, Domenico di Michelino', Antichità viva, XXIV/5-6, 1985
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1989

P. Joannides, 'Fra Angelico: Two Annunciations', Arte Cristiana, LXXXVII, 1989, pp. 303-5
1990

G. Didi-Huberman, Fra Angelico: Dissemblance et figuration, Paris 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1994

C.B. Strehlke, 'Fra Angelico studies', in L. Kanter et al., Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450, New York 1994, pp. 25-43
1995

R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVI, 1995, pp. 85-95
1998

D. Gordon, 'Zanobi Strozzi's "Annunciation" in the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, CXL/1145, 1998, pp. 517-24
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2003

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, London 2003

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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