L'Annonciation

Giovanni di Tommasino Crivelli's L'Annonciation (Annunciation), painted around 1440 and now in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, depicts the foundational moment of Christian theology — the archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive the Son of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Giovanni di Tommasino Crivelli was an Italian painter active in the mid-fifteenth century, and this Annunciation panel demonstrates the continued production of traditional devotional subjects by painters working outside the major centers of artistic innovation.

Tempera on panel. The Annunciation places Gabriel and the Virgin in an architectural interior, following established convention. The Italian workshop tradition renders Gabriel kneeling with lily while the Virgin turns from her book in startled reverence.