European

Lorenzo, school of di Credi

Italy 1460-1537
Annunciation 25.0052

---

The subject of the Annunciation, the meeting between the archangel Gabriel and Mary, was a common one for Renaissance artists. Usually Gabriel is portrayed alighting in front of a seated Mary, who is reading, surrounded by symbols of her purity. Gabriel comes to tell her of the impending birth of the Christ child. Not so common are scenes of the archangel's visit to Mary, depicted in the attitude of adoration called the Madre Pia, in order that he might communicate Christ's future suffering to her., symbolized by the crown of thorns. By 1480, di Credi, who was from a family of goldsmiths, was working in the studio of one of Florence's most prestigious artists, Andrea del Verrocchio, alongside the master's other pupils, Leonardo and Perugino. When Verrocchio died in 1488, di Credi established his own studio, finishing several of Verrocchio's commissions and carving out his own specialty, that of altarpieces and paintings of the Madonna and Child. His work displays much of the heavy modeling and formal arrangements common to other Florentine painters of the High Renaissance.

 

BACK TO COLLECTION