The Virgin Annunciate
1425 - 1450.Room 051B
The two panels (P2720 and P2721) formed an exquisite portable diptych dedicated to the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive the Son of God. Despite paint losses, we can still appreciate the delicacy of the faces and the fluency of the evanescent, almost weightless figures represented against an abstract gold background with multiple sgraffiti of leaves and flowers. On the cloth of the Virgin’s prie-dieu, the design imitates the texture of the silk cloths embellished with metallic gold or silver threads that were so popular in early 15th-century Valencia
The divine breath descending from the upper left corner will miraculously impregnate the young virgin. The soft, weightless figures and the gilded backgrounds are characteristic of the International Gothic style.
