The Prado Annunciation is an altarpiece painted by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni da Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico, in the 1420s. It is one of his best-known works. Originally destined for the convent of the observant Dominicans of Fiesole, the painting is currently in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It is one of three altarpieces by Fra Angelico representing the Annunciation; the other two being the Cortona Annunciation and the Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno. The sequence in which the three works were painted is not certain, but the general art historical consensus places the Prado version first.
The work was painted for a side altar in the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole, where Fra Angelico was a friar. For the same church he also contributed the main altarpiece, showing the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Dominican saints (c. 1425) and the Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Louvre (c. 1424–1435) .
The Annunciation remained at San Domenico until 1611 when it was sold to the King of Spain and taken to Madrid, where it became part of the royal collections of the Spanish monarchy before moving to Prado.
Description
The Virgin (detail)
The scenes have a structure similar to the other two Annunciations but with some differences. As in the Annunciation of Cortona, the pictured surface is divided in three parts (the garden, the Angel's arch and the Virgin's arch), but the vanishing point is inside the home, as in the Annunciation of San Giovanni, focusing the viewer's attention on the Annunciation. This scheme draws attention away from the figures of Adam and Eve expelled from Eden, which in the Cortonese Annunciation are smaller but are near the vanishing point.
Detail: Adam and Eve hunted out of Paradise "walking on the roses of the garden of Mary"
As in the other two works, they are moving in a flowered garden representing the virginity of Mary ("hortus conclusus"), inhabited by a multitude of plants and seedlings painted with great accuracy. Between the species with symbolic values, we can recognise the palm, representing the future martyrdom of Christ, and the red roses referring the blood of the Passion. The presence of Adam and Eve evidences the cycle of the human damnation, recomposed with the deliverance in Christ made possible by the acceptance of Mary.
From the high-left a ray of divine light illuminates, through the dove of Holy Spirit, the Virgin, who bends accepting her duty submissively. She's sitting on a seat covered with a rich drape acting as carpet, and she has on her knees an open book, symbol of the happening Scriptures.
The Angel has a similar pose and vest to the work of San Giovanni, although his figure appears more static and the folds of the vest are more schematic, and may be the work of a collaborator.
The scene is set under a Renaissance portico with the light arches stretched with wisdom on perspective, which remember the architecture of Michelozzo. Light appears unified, unlike the pail of Cortona, and moves from left to right for all the element.
The overall effect is of a precious description of the various details, with cold and bright colours, almost crystallized, in the changing colour harmonies of blue and pink.
Predella
In the predella there are five scenes from Mary's life ( Birth and Marriage, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Magi, Presentation at the temple and the dormition) where the master had worked freely on the composition, less subjected to the iconographic tradition of the main scene.
The Sposalizio presents the background of a Renaissance church with portico, while the visitation shows a sidelong lodge, represented with ability. This scene does not reach the vivid expression of fatigue on the woman who is going to the chime as in the predella of the Annunciation of Cortona. The Adoration of the Magi instead is completely original and shows an innovative frontal iconography years before the revolution of Botticelli (Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, 1475), enhanced by the complex perspective of the hut's ruins. Here can be noticed the distinct use of lights by Beato Angelico, who creates a pure and crystal illumination which models volumes, enhances the chromatic harmony and unifies the scenes.
The following scene of the Presentation is more innovative, with the ambient placed inside a circular temple which seems projected through lens to the viewer, improving the scheme already used on the Presentation at the Temple by Gentile da Fabriano. The Dormition is the most traditional scene though the invention of the avvallamento between the background mountains can be considered innovative, because it creates a perspective channel to the holy way suspended by the Angels on the top.
Predella of the Pala of the Prado's Annunciation
Bibliography
Angelico Venturino Alce, Angelicus pictor: vita, opere e teologia del Beato Angelico, Edizioni Studio Domenicano, 1993. ISBN88-7094-126-4
Guido Cornini, Beato Angelico, Giunti, Firenze 2000 ISBN88-09-01602-5
Fra Angelico, O.P. was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence, then worked in Rome and other cities. All his known work is of religious subjects.
Benedetto Bonfigli was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Perugia, and part of the Umbria school of painters including Raphael and Perugino. He is also known as Buonfiglio. Influenced by the style of Domenico Veneziano, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Fra Angelico, Bonfigli primarily painted frescos for the church and was at one point employed in the Vatican. His best-preserved work is the Annunciation, but his masterpiece is the decoration of the chapel of the Palazzo dei Priori. Bonfigli specialized in gonfaloni, a Perugian style using banners painted on canvas or linen. Little is known of his personal life, but he was an esteemed painter in Perugia before Perugino, who is said to be his pupil.
The Oddi altarpiece, or more correctly the degli Oddi altarpiece, is an altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin painted in 1502-1504 by the Italian Renaissance master Raphael for the altar of the Oddi family chapel in the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, Italy, now in the Vatican Pinacoteca. The altarpiece was commissioned for the Oddi family chapel in San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, was taken to Paris in 1797 and in 1815 brought back to Italy, not to Perugia but to the Vatican Pinacoteca.
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The San Marco Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, housed in the San Marco Museum of Florence, Italy. It was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, and was completed sometime between 1438 and 1443.
The Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno is a painting by the Italian Early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, painted c. 1430 to 1432 in tempera on panel. It is part of a series of Annunciation panels painted by Fra Angelico in the 1430s. The other two are the Annunciation of Cortona and the Annunciation.
The Annunciation of Cortona is a panel-painting altarpiece or retable by the Italian Renaissance painter Fra Angelico: once housed in the Church of Gesù of Cortona, it is now held at the Museo Diocesano in Cortona.
The Cortona Triptych is a Catholic Church depiction of the Madonna and Child with saints, painted by Fra Angelico. It is now kept at the Diocesan Museum in Cortona, Italy. The painting dates from 1436–1437.
The Coronation of the Virgin is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, executed around 1434–1435 in Fiesole (Florence). It is now in the Musée du Louvre of Paris, France. The artist executed another Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Uffizi in Florence.
The Perugia Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria of Perugia, Italy.
The Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel is a chapel in the church of Santa Trinita, Florence, central Italy. Its decoration by Lorenzo Monaco, dating to the 1420s, are one of the few surviving examples of International Gothic frescoes in Italy. The chapel has kept other original elements, such as its altarpiece, an Annunciation, also by Monaco, and the railings.
The Tabernacle of the Linaioli is a marble aedicula designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti, with paintings by Fra Angelico, dating to 1432–1433. It is housed in the National Museum of San Marco, Florence, Italy.
The Fiesole Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, executed around 1424–1425. It is housed in the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole, central Italy. The background was repainted by Lorenzo di Credi in 1501.
The St. Peter of Verona Triptych is a tempera-on-panel painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, executed around 1428–1429. It is housed in the National Museum of San Marco in Florence, Italy.
The Baroncelli Chapel is a chapel located at the end of the right transept in church of Santa Croce, central Florence, Italy.
The Bartolini Salimbeni Annunciation is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian Gothic painter Lorenzo Monaco, completed just before his death (1420–1424). It is housed in the Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel of the church of Santa Trinita, Florence.
The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Domenico Ghirlandaio, executed around 1485–1488 and housed in the Ospedale degli Innocenti gallery in Florence, Italy. The predella, painted by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, is in the same site.
Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi, normally referred to more simply as Zanobi Strozzi, was an Italian Renaissance painter and manuscript illuminator active in Florence and nearby Fiesole. He was closely associated with Fra Angelico, probably as his pupil, as told by Vasari. He is the same painter as the Master of the Buckingham Palace Madonna. Most of his surviving works are manuscript illuminations but a number of panel paintings have also been attributed to him, including seven altarpieces and six panels with the Virgin and Child, along with some designs for metalwork.
Two small paintings in London and New York are believed to come from the same predella, and are attributed to Zanobi Strozzi, a Florentine painter who was probably a pupil of Fra Angelico. They are an Adoration of the Magi in the National Gallery in London, and a Nativity in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They date to about 1433–34 and are in tempera and gold on panel.
Adoration of the Magi is a painting in tempera on wood panel by Luca Signorelli (1450–1523) and his assistants, executed c. 1493–1494, and now in the Louvre in Paris. It was probably the first painting he produced in Città di Castello, and originally hung over the main altar of the monastery church of Sant'Agostino. The surface displayed within the frame is 331 cm by 245.5 cm. In late 2022 it was not on display.
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