This Annunciation Triptych by Lorenzo Monaco, painted around 1410–1415, one of the masterpieces of early fifteenth-century Florentine painting. It is now housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.

The altarpiece presents the Annunciation to the Virgin, flanked by four saints: Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Anthony Abbot on the left, Saint Proculus and Saint Francis on the right. Above, in the central gable, appears Christ the Redeemer, gazing down from a blue medallion of heaven.

In the center, the Archangel Gabriel kneels in radiant pink and gold, his wings shimmering with lapis, vermilion, and gilded pattern. He greets the Virgin Mary, seated in a deep blue mantle, her gesture of humility and acceptance conveying both grace and intellect. Between them, a shaft of divine light descends, bearing the tiny dove of the Holy Spirit—a visual symbol of the Incarnation. The setting, rendered in delicate Gothic architecture, suggests both a sacred chamber and a vision beyond time.

The painting’s gilded background and ornate cusped frames continue the tradition of late Gothic devotional art, yet Monaco’s figures reveal a new sense of volume, movement, and psychological presence. The draperies, though linear and stylized, begin to express real weight and flow, and the soft modeling of faces hints at the transition toward Renaissance naturalism.

Lorenzo Monaco (born Piero di Giovanni, c. 1370–1425) was a Camaldolese monk and one of the last great masters of the Gothic style in Florence. Trained at Santa Maria degli Angeli, he was deeply influenced by the spirituality of monastic life and by the art of Giotto, Agnolo Gaddi, and the Sienese school.

This triptych marks the high point of his mature style, painted for the Camaldolese church of San Benedetto fuori Porta Pinti in Florence. It embodies the meditative ideal of monastic devotion—lyrical, contemplative, and filled with light. Yet its refined color harmonies and increasing interest in spatial coherence look ahead to the Renaissance painters who followed, particularly Fra Angelico, who absorbed Monaco’s sense of radiance and spiritual stillness.

The Annunciation Triptych stands as a bridge between two worlds: the mystical splendor of medieval art and the measured clarity of the Renaissance. Its burnished gold, intricate line, and musical color create an atmosphere of divine revelation. In Lorenzo Monaco’s hands, the Annunciation is not an event in time but a vision of eternal grace, an image of beauty as theology.