Annunciation in an Initial M
Maestro Daddesco
ca. 1310–15 · Tempera and gold on parchment · Robert Lehman Collection
The initial M illustrates an antiphon for the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25): Missus est Gabriel Angelus ad Mariam Virginem ("The Angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary"). In this initial, the illuminator used the form of the letter M to divide and frame the figures of the Virgin and the angel Gabriel, kneeling before her. The wood floor, rendered with a spiraling grain pattern, suggests that the setting is a domestic interior. This cutting may be an early work by the anonymous painter and illuminator known as the Maestro Daddesco, who was either a contemporary or a follower of the Florentine artist Bernardo Daddi and was a major figure in Florentine illumination during the first half of the fourteenth century.
- Artist
- Maestro Daddesco
- Date
- ca. 1310–15
- Medium
- Tempera and gold on parchment
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 1975.1.2478
