The Annunciation to Zacharias; (verso) The Angel of the Annunciationca. 1455–60
In the Temple at Jerusalem the aged priest Zacharias is visited by the angel Gabriel, who announces that his wife Elizabeth, long childless, will bear a son, the future John the Baptist. More about this work
About this work
In the Temple at Jerusalem the aged priest Zacharias is visited by the angel Gabriel, who announces that his wife Elizabeth, long childless, will bear a son, the future John the Baptist. Zacharias doubts, and is struck dumb until the child is born. Giovanni di Paolo, the Sienese painter, made this panel in the later 1450s as part of a series of scenes from the Baptist’s life; the angel of the Annunciation painted on the back suggests that it once formed part of a hinged or double-sided ensemble.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Gold ground
- Gold leaf laid over a red clay and burnished to a mirror shine, often tooled with punches so it flickers in candlelight. Behind sacred figures it stands for heavenly light.
- Tempera
- Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.
Giovanni di Paolo
Italian, 1398–1482 · Born and died in Siena.
Giovanni di Paolo spent his long career in Siena, where he was one of the city’s leading painters through the fifteenth century. Holding to the Sienese tradition of gold grounds and graceful line, he created a highly personal world of slender figures, steep, patterned landscapes and vivid storytelling, seen in narrative panels such as Saint John the Baptist Entering the Wilderness and The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1975.1.37
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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