LORENZO VENEZIANO
(active 1356-1372 in Venice)

Annunciation

1371
Tempera on panel, 111 x 54 cm
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This painting, signed and dated 1371, is the central panel of a polyptych. Here we can see clearly how Lorenzo Veneziano, in his mature work moved increasingly towards the musical expressiveness of colour shot through with Gothic accents. The iconographical scheme of this Annunciation is radically different from that of the Lion polyptych. The figures of the Virgin and the herald angel inhabit the space of the picture in a much more substantial sense, are in much solider bodily contact with the grass and flowers. Indeed this is the first example in Venice of a naturalistic motif which was dear to the hearts of the refined artists working in the International Gothic style. This style too is exemplified in the elaborate linear cadences and the way the figures are presented in curving compositional rhythms.