The Annunciation (diptych)

The Annunciation (diptych), painted around 1450 and held at the Courtauld Gallery in London, divides the Annunciation scene across two hinged panels—the Angel Gabriel on the left panel, the Virgin Mary on the right—a format that creates a visual dialogue between messenger and recipient as the diptych is opened or closed. The diptych format was popular for devotional objects that could be carried, closed for transport and opened for prayer. Pesellino's version allows each figure to occupy a complete spatial environment rather than sharing a single pictorial space.

In a diptych Annunciation, the two figures must be composed so that their poses direct attention toward the closed space between the panels—Gabriel gesturing toward Mary, Mary responding with her body turned toward Gabriel—even though they inhabit separate physical objects. Pesellino carefully controls the spatial orientation of each figure to preserve the visual relationship across the division.