Annunciation of Cortona

The Annunciation of Cortona is a tempera-on-panel altarpiece painted by Fra Angelico around 1433–1434. It was originally housed in the Church of Gesù in Cortona and is now kept in the town's Diocesan Museum. The scene follows the standard iconography of the subject: the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary she will bear the Son of God, an episode recounted in the Gospels and elaborated in detail in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend, a key reference for Renaissance painters. The walled garden, the presence of the Holy Spirit and the figures of Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise, placed outside Mary's enclosure, allude to purity and redemption. The panel is the main part of a polyptych whose predella shows scenes from the Virgin's life; these are attributed, at least in part, to Zanobi Strozzi, an assistant of the painter. Its most unusual feature is the inscription: Mary's words are written upside down, so they can only be read from the position of God, to whom they are addressed. This device was rare in Italy, though it had precedents in Flanders.

Painter

Fra Angelico

Date

1430

Medium

tempera, panel

Dimensions

175 × 180 cm

Museum

Diocesan Museum in Cortona, Cortona

Movement

Italian Renaissance, Early Renaissance

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Annunciation

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