LIPPI, Filippino
(b. ca. 1457, Prato, d. 1504, Firenze)

Gabriel from the Annunciation

1483-84
Wood, diameter 110 cm
Museo Civico, San Gimignano

Filippino Lippi's skills as a designer are well demonstrated in the painted tondi representing the Annunciation, with their richly carved Renaissance frames. (The pendant picture shows the Virgin.) Within a carefully modulated interior setting with distant views on either side, the Archangel Gabriel holds the lily in his left hand. This is his first documented work, and already Lippi proves himself to be highly skilled.