Annunciation

In 1503 a confraternity of priests in Florence hired Mariotto Albertinelli to paint an altarpiece for their chapel, and along its base ran three small scenes meant to be read close up. This Annunciation is the first of them. The angel Gabriel has come to tell Mary she will bear a son, and the moment opens the story that the two panels beside it carry forward. Painters called this lower strip a predella, and it let the artist tell a narrative in miniature beneath the large, still image above. Albertinelli gives the scene the same even light and unhurried spacing he used at full size. The panel is now in the Uffizi in Florence.