GIOVANNI ANGELO D'ANTONIO
(documented 1443-1476)

The Annunciation

1456-58
Tempera and gold on wood, 126 x 76 cm
Collegiata di Santa Maria di Piazza Alta, Sarnano

This work is a portable standard, meant to be mounted atop a pole and carried in public processions on important religious feast days. It is painted on both sides of a single panel, one side depicting the Annunciation, the other the Crucifixion. Both sides have sustained significant losses. The subjects of the standard suggest that it was intended especially for the procession on 25 March in honour of the annunciation of the birth of Christ.

This type of double-sided panel painting was very popular in the marches in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.