Lombard School, 17th Century, The Annunciation

Lombard School, 17th century

Annunciation

Oil on copper, 24 x 17.5 cm

This refined composition on copper depicting the Annunciation is an example of devotional art produced in Lombardy during the 17th century. The small size of the metal plate—which ensures vibrant colors and glazed paint layers—here accommodates an iconographic and stylistic approach that clearly draws on the great models of the Milanese Baroque. The composition centers on the mystical dialogue between the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. The angel, positioned on the left and supported by a dense, vaporous cloud, bursts into the room wrapped in a vivid red cloak with ample, pronounced drapery; in his left hand he holds a lily, a traditional symbol of purity, while with his right he makes a gesture of devout greeting. On the right, the Virgin is kneeling before the kneeler with the Book of Scripture open, depicted in an attitude of humble acceptance and profound submission to the divine plan, emphasized by her hands crossed over her chest. Above, bathed in a beam of heavenly light that pierces the shadowed setting, the dove of the Holy Spirit can be seen. Stylistically and formally, the composition is tangibly influenced by the legacy of the masters of 17th-century Milanese painting, establishing a clear ideal and typological affinity with the works of Carlo Francesco Nuvolone and his prolific workshop. The iconographic model draws on the composition of the famous Annunciations associated with Nuvolone’s circle, where the scene’s restrained theatricality is balanced by a marked emotional tenderness. The rendering of Mary’s face—with its delicate oval shape, fair complexion, lowered eyelids, and gentle features—conveys, in a concise and devotional manner, that typical ideal of beauty and intimate piety championed by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone. Similarly, the drapery of the angelic figure and the sculptural structure of the cloud echo the stylistic elements characteristic of 17th-century Lombard figurative rhetoric, rooted in the interplay between mysticism and figurative theatricality. The artist, active in the second half of the 17th century, demonstrates here his ability to reinterpret the major conventions of the Milanese altarpiece and interior painting, synthesizing them with expert taste into a restrained and refined composition, perfectly suited to the small copper plate’s intended use as both a collector’s item and an object of devotion.