(Prato 1457–1504 Florence)
The Annunciation, inscribed: Ave Maria Gratia Plena Domminus Tecv.,
oil on panel, tondo, diameter 58 cm, framed

Provenance:
European Private Collection

The as yet unidentified artist responsible for this work may have been a member of Filippino Lippi´s workshop.

Despite making use of a different palette, there are many features that recall Filippino Lippi´s Annunciation from around 1495 in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (see A. Scharf, Filippino Lippi, Wien 1950, p. 56). The similarities, including the actual size of the panel, are so close, that the present picture may in part derive directly from a cartoon prepared by Filippino. However there is no original model known for the figure of Madonna receiving the annunciation in the present composition, even though one must have existed. Indeed numerous derivations of this pose are known, including those by Filippino Lippi´s workshop of the Madonna adoring the Child, with Saint Joseph sleeping in the Museo dello Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence (Inv. no. 48;) and in the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht.

The closest model is the tondo now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 79). In this case too, the similarity in size suggests the use of a cartoon by Filippino Lippi.

From these stylistic features, it is clear that the painter of this tondo was most likely present in the workshop of Filippino Lippi around the middle of the 1490s, and that subsequent to Lippi’s death on April 18, 1504, he joined the workshop of Raffaellino del Garbo. He seems to have been well-acquainted with the works painted around 1505 or immediately after. The present tondo betrays a handling of paint and some graphic touches which display an awareness of Raffaellino del Garbo’s painting, such as the altarpiece of San Salvi, now in the Louvre.