Annunciation (Lippi, Munich)

Gabriel kneels with his lily to tell Mary she will bear the son of God (Luke 1:26-38). Filippo Lippi stages the scene in a sumptuous Renaissance palace of receding arches and columns, with an enclosed garden behind - the hortus conclusus, or 'walled garden,' a traditional symbol of the Virgin's purity. Where Fra Angelico kept his Annunciations austere, Lippi, a Carmelite friar with a worldly streak, loves ornament: gilded hems, fluttering wings, crystalline detail. His flowing line and sweetness passed directly to his pupil Botticelli, making this one of the most decorative treatments of a subject the collection traces from Simone Martini onward.