Annunciation

Defendente Ferrari painted this Annunciation around 1510, working in the Piedmontese tradition that maintained close links with French and Flemish painting. Savigliano-born Ferrari became the leading painter of Piedmont in the early sixteenth century, receiving commissions from churches and confraternities across the region. His Annunciation compositions—the angel Gabriel approaching the kneeling Virgin in an architectural interior—combine the meticulous detail of Flemish panel painting with the warmer tonality of northern Italian devotional art. The Annunciation was among the most frequently commissioned sacred subjects, both as altarpieces and as private devotional images, and Ferrari's many versions demonstrate the flexibility of his workshop practice.

The panel shows Ferrari's characteristic blend of Leonardesque softness with dramatic emotional intensity, using expressive gesture and rich color to animate the devotional scene.