The ''Annunciation'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter

Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest. Biography Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orp ...

. Dating to 1440–1445, it is housed in the

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two ...

of Palazzo Barberini,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The composition pivots around the Virgin, who occupies the centre of the scene. In the background, on the right, two small figures of women are riding a stair. The two

donor portrait A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...

s show the unknown donors kneeling behind a

cordonata The cordonata (Italian word, from ''cordone'', which in architecture means "linear element which emphasizes a limit") is a sloping road interrupted at regular distances by low (8-10 cm) steps in the form of transversal stripes (''cordoni'') made ...

. That they were represented in natural size (i.e., in the same size as the religious figures) was a relatively new stylistic feature.

See also