Announcement of the Death of the Virgin

This is a rare subject, and easy to misread. It shows the moment the Virgin is told her death is near, well before the deathbed scene painters usually chose. Mary, older now, stands in a cloister while an angel comes to her and hands her a lighted torch to carry into what is coming. Most painters skipped straight to the deathbed, with the apostles gathered round. Lippi gives this quieter instant instead, one figure and one messenger in an ordinary covered walk of the kind found in any Florentine convent, where the only unusual thing is the small flame passing from the angel's hand into hers.