Annunciation (Leonardo)
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| Artist | Leonardo da Vinci |
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| Year | circa 1472–1475[1] |
| Type | Oil and tempera on panel |
| Dimensions | 98 cm × 217 cm (39 in × 85 in) |
| Location | Uffizi, Florence, Italy[1] |
The Annunciation is a painting by Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1472–1475[1] and housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. The wings were later extended by another artist.[citation needed] A variant exists at the Louvre Museum.
The angel holds a Madonna lily, a symbol of Mary's virginity and of the city of Florence. It is supposed that Leonardo originally copied the wings from those of a bird in flight, but they have since been lengthened by a later artist
When the Annunciation came to the Uffizi in 1867, from the Olivetan monastery of San Bartolomeo, near Florence, it was ascribed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was, like Leonardo, an apprentice in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1869, Karl Eduard von Liphart, the central figure of the German expatriate art colony in Florence, recognized it as a youthful work by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, one of the first attributions of a surviving work to the youthful Leonardo.[2] Since then a preparatory drawing for the angel's sleeve has been recognized and attributed to Leonardo.
Verrocchio used lead-based paint and heavy brush strokes. He left a note for Leonardo to finish the background and the angel. Leonardo used light brush strokes and no lead. When the Annunciation was x-rayed, Verrocchio's work was evident while Leonardo's angel was invisible.
The marble table, in front of the Virgin, probably quotes the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which Verrocchio had sculpted during this same period. Some immature hesitancies are usually noted, especially the Virgin's ambiguous spatial relation to the desk and the marble on which it rests.
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[edit] Controversy
On March 12, 2007, the painting was at the center of a furor between Italian citizens and the Minister of Culture, who decided to place the picture on loan to exhibit in Japan.[3][4]
[edit] Details of the painting
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Angel
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Maria
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Bible and hand of Maria
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Background
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c "Leonardo da Vinci: The Annunciation" (overview), ArtChive.com, 2009, webpage: AC-Annunc.
- ^ Though there was hesitation on the part of some art historians who remarked its Verrocchio-like qualities and by Giovanni Morelli, who cited the angel's hands in assigning it to Ridolfo, son of Ghirlandaio, the attribution was accepted: David Alan Brown, Leonardo da Vinci: origins of a genius, 1998:169, 170.
- ^ NETZEITUNG KULTURNEWS: Da-Vinci-Gemälde lässt sich nicht anketten
- ^ CBC.ca Arts - Da Vinci work crated for loan despite Italian protests
[edit] External links
Media related to Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci at Wikimedia Commons
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