Annunciation with Saints Maxima and Ansanus

This gold panel was finished in 1333 for an altar inside Siena cathedral, at the height of the city's confidence as a rival to Florence. Siena had made the Virgin Mary its official protector after a famous battlefield victory, so an Annunciation here was civic as much as religious. Gabriel has just landed, his cloak still streaming, and the words of his greeting run in raised gold letters straight across the space toward Mary. She pulls back and twists away from him, thumb caught in the book she was reading. On the left stands Ansanus, one of Siena's patron saints, holding a banner in the city's black and white. The elaborate carved frame you see is a later reconstruction.