Annunciation with Two Kneeling Donors

Filippo Lippi's Annunciation with Two Kneeling Donors, painted around 1445, is a masterpiece of early Renaissance devotional painting. The inclusion of donor portraits within the sacred scene reflects Florentine patronage practices where wealthy citizens commissioned altarpieces for family chapels. Lippi, a Carmelite friar whose eventful life included the famous abduction of the nun Lucrezia Buti, was one of the most innovative painters in Medicean Florence.

Lippi employs his characteristic linear grace with delicate drapery folds, refined spatial perspective, and the soft facial modeling influenced by Fra Angelico, combined with a luminous palette and careful botanical details in the garden setting.