Gentile da Fabriano, Annunciation

Description

The angel arrives in Mary's room passing through the arched door that leads to the garden (the hortus conclusus), where you can see some saplings and God the Father beardless, in a nimbus of seraphim, who through a rosette open in the wall sends a ray of golden dust that carries the dove of the Holy Spirit up to Mary's womb, sitting placidly.The backdrop is divided into several consecutive levels: the first floor with the exotic Caucasian carpet, the top of the bench on which Maria placed the book, the back wall of the room and the alcove. The precise description of the room recalls some scenes from the predella of the Quaratesi Polyptych, in particular the alcove of St. Nicholas who gives three golden balls to poor girls. There are numerous meticulous details that make the attention diverge from the main subject, rewarding a careful analysis: the lace of the gutter, the mullioned window, the three-light window and the second rosette on the walls that seem to be made of lace, the openwork inlays of the pancale, the embroidered open curtain.