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The Annunciation

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The Annunciation
Jiajing Lei
A Deeper Look into a Piece of Art
Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli, (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
1485
Tempera and gold on wood
Accession number: 1975.1.74

One of the most celebrated paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection, this jewel-like representation of the Annunciation is set in an architectural interior constructed according to a rigorous system of one-point perspective. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger structure. While the identity of the patron is not known, the work was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century.

Jia Jing lei
Art History
Professor Boyce
November 20, 2012
A deeper look into the fine art of the “ Annunciation” As I walk in the Metropolitan Art Museum, I began to walk around the art gallery that was around me. It was a great area with a roomful of bright and artistic paintings that was created by famous artists around the world. But only one painting got my attention. The painting happens to be the Annunciation by Botticelli. The Botticelli’s The Cestello Annunciation was presented in a jewel-like style and it is an architectural interior constructed based on a rigorous system of one-point perspective. After viewing the artistic techniques in the painting, it was clear that the painting demonstrates Botticelli’s style in bring together ideas of Christianity and pagan ideas which includes mythology and the changes in art due to the humanism of the Renaissance. Just giving a brief summary of famous painter Botticelli, Sandro would be considering the most famous painter of early Renaissance period, which was the one of the leading painters during his time in Florence. During his early career as an artist Botticelli trained with Filippo Lippi and he learned the delicacy, finesse and sweetness in which Filippo possessed while adding a wiry vigor of draughtsman ship


Bibliography: 1) "Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi): The Annunciation (1975.1.74)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.74 (June 2008) 2) Sorabella, Jean. "Painting the Life of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Italy". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chri/hd_chri.htm (June 2008) 3) Spencer, John R. “Spatial Imagery of the Annunciation in Fifteenth Century Florence,” in The Art Bulletin , Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec., 1955), pp. 273-280. Published by: College Art Association. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3047619 4) Artist’s Biography: Botticelli (Italian, Florentine, 1444/45–1510). http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e347
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