The Cortona Annunciation by Fra Angelico: what it depicts
The Cortona Annunciation by Fra Angelico
Words you can read
The conversation is written on the picture. Lines of gold letters stream from Gabriel’s mouth toward Mary — the angel’s greeting and the promise of the Holy Spirit — and her reply comes back toward him. Her answer, Ecce ancilla Domini, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, is written upside down. It is addressed upward, and Fra Angelico has lettered it so that God, looking down, can read it.
The first Eve and the second
Gabriel arrives in a loggia of slender columns under a starry blue vault, his wings banded in gold and red. Mary sits on a bench with a book open in her lap, hands crossed on her breast. Behind them, in a garden at the upper left, Adam and Eve are being driven out of Paradise by an angel. The pairing is deliberate and old: Eve’s disobedience is undone by Mary’s consent.
Painted for Cortona
Fra Angelico made it for the church of San Domenico in Cortona, where his Dominican community had a house. It is the first of his great altarpieces of the Annunciation, and the composition he found here — loggia, garden, expulsion — he returned to for the rest of his life.
Where it hangs
The altarpiece is in the Diocesan Museum in Cortona and measures 175 by 180 centimetres.
About this print
Made from a 3,348-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 22 inches on its longest side.
Sources: Museo Diocesano, Cortona · Wikidata Q2376881 · Wikimedia Commons
Who Made It
Created by Fra Angelico. Painted in 1434. Tempera.
All Available Options
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| Type | Size | Color | Price | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas | 6" x 6" | - | $33.26 | In Stock |
| Canvas | 10″ x 10″ | - | $41.66 | In Stock |
| Canvas | 12″ x 12″ | - | $41.47 | In Stock |
| Canvas | 14" x 14" | - | $44.47 | In Stock |
| Canvas | 16" x 16" | - | $50.01 | In Stock |
| Canvas | 20″ x 20″ | - | $92.18 | In Stock |
| Framed | 6" x 6" | Black | $51.02 | In Stock |
| Framed | 6" x 6" | Espresso | $51.02 | In Stock |
| Framed | 6" x 6" | White | $51.02 | In Stock |
| Framed | 8" x 8" | Black | $52.87 | In Stock |
| Framed | 8" x 8" | Espresso | $52.87 | In Stock |
| Framed | 8" x 8" | White | $52.87 | In Stock |
| Framed | 10″ x 10″ | Black | $64.92 | In Stock |
| Framed | 10″ x 10″ | Espresso | $64.92 | In Stock |
| Framed | 10″ x 10″ | White | $64.92 | In Stock |
| Framed | 12″ x 12″ | Black | $79.40 | In Stock |
| Framed | 12″ x 12″ | Espresso | $79.40 | In Stock |
| Framed | 12″ x 12″ | White | $79.40 | In Stock |
| Framed | 14" x 14" | Black | $88.06 | In Stock |
| Framed | 14" x 14" | Espresso | $88.06 | In Stock |
| Framed | 14" x 14" | White | $88.06 | In Stock |
| Framed | 16″ x 16″ | Black | $101.29 | In Stock |
| Framed | 16″ x 16″ | Espresso | $101.29 | In Stock |
| Framed | 16″ x 16″ | White | $101.29 | In Stock |
| Framed | 20″ x 20″ | Black | $129.61 | In Stock |
| Framed | 20″ x 20″ | Espresso | $129.61 | In Stock |
| Framed | 20″ x 20″ | White | $129.61 | In Stock |
Image: source, Public domain (work) · CC BY-SA 4.0 (photograph).
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