Ecce Ancilla Domini

Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Ecce Ancilla Domini (The Annunciation) in 1849-1850, his second major oil painting. The radical simplicity of the composition, with the figures placed against a stark white background, shocked viewers accustomed to traditional Annunciation scenes. Rossetti's use of family members as models — his sister Christina as Mary and his brother William as the angel — gave the painting an unprecedented intimacy.

The painting's restricted palette of white, blue, and gold creates a luminous, icon-like quality unlike anything in contemporary art. Rossetti's deliberate archaism and the painting's flat, decorative quality reflect his study of early Italian art before Raphael.