Sandro Botticelli
The Annunciation

Circa 1485
Tempera on panel

Sandro Botticelli, Italian (Florence), ca. 1445–1510
Tempera on panel; 7 1/2 x 12 1/3 in. (19.1 x 31.4 cm)
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.74)

This jewel-like represention of the Annunciation is set in an architectural interior constructed following a rigorous system of one-point perspective. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger structure. While the identity of the patron is not known, the work was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century. One of the most celebrated masterpieces in the Robert Lehman Collection, the Annunciation was given by Robert Lehman to his father, Philip, as a birthday gift and was a favorite of both men.

Provenance/Ownership History: Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy; E. Volpi, Florence, Italy; exported from Italy, July, 1905 (dated customs stamp on reverse of panel); Oscar Huldschinsky, Berlin, Germany, from 1906; Huldschinsky sale, Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, Germany, May 10–11, 1928, no. 54; bought by Böhler and Steinmeyer for Robert Lehman, New York, New York.