Annunciation

An early work from Verrocchio’s workshop

When Leonardo painted the Annunciation, he was around twenty and still working in the Florentine studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. The Uffizi Gallery, where the panel hangs, dates it to about 1472 and places it among his earliest surviving paintings.

Nothing is known about who commissioned it or where it first hung. The Uffizi acquired it in 1867 from the church of San Bartolomeo at Monteoliveto, outside Florence. For a long time it was given to other painters, and its attribution to the young Leonardo was only accepted later in the nineteenth century.

The subject is the moment from the Gospel of Luke when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a son. Leonardo set it outdoors, in front of a house and an enclosed garden, with a wide landscape beyond.

Gabriel kneels with a lily

The angel kneels on the lawn at the left, raising two fingers in blessing and holding a white lily, the traditional flower of Mary’s purity. His curly hair is painted strand by strand, and a fine gold ray marks his halo.

His wings are unusually solid and bird-like, built with real feathers rather than decorative shapes. Leonardo studied birds throughout his life, and the wings already show that interest. The Uffizi notes how the angel even casts a shadow on the grass, a sign of the painter’s attention to light.

Mary pauses over her book

Mary sits at the right before the corner of a stone house. Her left hand is raised in a gesture of surprise or acceptance, while her right hand keeps her place in an open book. Her expression is calm.

The book rests on a lectern covered with a transparent veil. Its pages lift slightly at the edge, as if just turned. Many viewers have noticed that Mary’s right arm looks too long. The Uffizi links this to Leonardo’s studies of optics and suggests the panel was designed to be seen from one side, on a side altar, where the proportions would look correct.

A lectern carved like a Medici tomb

The marble lectern in front of Mary is richly carved, with a shell, garlands, scrolls and lion’s feet. It closely recalls the bronze and marble tomb that Verrocchio made for Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici in the church of San Lorenzo, which was being completed in those same years.

The quotation tells us something about the workshop. Leonardo was learning from his master’s sculpture and translating it into paint, with crisp edges and careful shading that make the stone look solid.

A landscape fading into blue haze

Between the dark cypress trees, the view opens onto a harbour, a town and a tall mountain. The farther things are, the paler and bluer they become. This is aerial perspective, the effect of the atmosphere on distant objects, which Leonardo would later describe in his notes.

Even in this early work, the distance is treated as something seen through air, not as a sharp backdrop. The calm light, described by the Uffizi as crepuscular, gives the whole scene a quiet, suspended mood.

The story of the Annunciation

In the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel is sent by God to a young woman in Nazareth named Mary. He tells her she will conceive and give birth to a son, Jesus. Mary is troubled at first but accepts: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” The moment marks the beginning of the story of Christ’s life.

The Annunciation was one of the most popular subjects in Italian art. Painters usually showed Gabriel kneeling with a lily, a symbol of purity, and Mary reading or praying. Leonardo follows that tradition but sets the scene outdoors, in a garden in front of a grand house.

Wings like a real bird

Gabriel’s wings were originally painted to look like those of a real bird, based on Leonardo’s close observation. Later, another artist extended them with a brownish addition, making them longer and less natural. Leonardo’s lifelong interest in flight is already visible in this early work.

A young painter’s experiments

The painting is not perfect, and that is part of its interest. Mary’s right arm seems too long, and her position in relation to the lectern is awkward. The perspective of the building is not entirely consistent. Some scholars think these oddities were deliberate corrections for viewers looking at the panel from below and to the right; others see them as the mistakes of a young artist.

Either way, the painting shows Leonardo learning. The landscape in the distance, with its misty mountains and soft blue air, already announces the atmospheric effects of his mature works.

A sculptor’s lectern

The marble lectern in front of Mary is decorated with carved shells, leaves and lion’s feet. It closely resembles the tomb of Giovanni and Piero de’ Medici made by Verrocchio in the church of San Lorenzo. The young Leonardo seems to have borrowed the design from his master’s sculpture, a sign of how closely he worked within the workshop.

Where to see it

The Annunciation hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, in the rooms devoted to Leonardo and his circle. Nearby is The Baptism of Christ, also from Verrocchio’s workshop. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. For more of the world’s great masterpieces, explore our top 100 most famous paintings.

Questions about Leonardo’s Annunciation

When was it painted?

Around 1472, when Leonardo was still in Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence.

Where is the original?

Uffizi Gallery, Florence (Inv. 1890 n. 1618).

Why does Mary’s arm look too long?

The Uffizi connects the distortion to Leonardo’s optical studies and to the panel’s original placement, which meant it was seen from an angle.

How large is it?

About 90 × 222 centimetres, according to the Uffizi.

Why does Mary’s arm look odd?

The proportions are not entirely correct. Some think Leonardo adjusted them for viewing from an angle; others see them as youthful errors.

Were Gabriel’s wings changed?

Yes. They were later extended by another hand, making them less natural than Leonardo’s original bird-like wings.

Sources and image credit

• Uffizi Galleries: Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci
• Wikimedia Commons: Annunciation

Faithful public-domain reproduction of the Annunciation (about 1472), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.