Nativity with Angel of the Annunciation (triptych, left wing)

This Nativity with the Angel of the Annunciation forms the left wing of a triptych by Nardo di Cione, now in the Courtauld Gallery, London. Nardo was the brother of Andrea di Cione (Orcagna) and a major figure in Florentine painting after the Black Death of 1348, which devastated the city's artistic community. His measured, contemplative style reflects the more solemn religious mood that pervaded Florentine art in the plague's aftermath, moving away from the earlier generation's narrative exuberance toward hieratic devotional intensity.

Tempera and gold on panel with the characteristic restrained palette of post-plague Florentine painting. Nardo's figures display solid, volumetric modeling inherited from the Giottesque tradition, set against a tooled gold ground with careful attention to the panel's architectural framing.