Annunciazione
Jacopo Chimenti detto l'Empoli
(Florence 1551 – 1640)
- Oil on copper
- 50 cm x 35 cm
- The painting is framed in its original ebonized wood frame
Empoli returned to the subject of the Annunciation on several occasions. The earliest known version, and the one most closely related to the present work, was painted for the Chiesa Nuova in Pontedera and is dated 1599. An autograph oil model and several preparatory drawings for the composition also survive (1).
A decade later, in 1609, Empoli revisited the subject in the celebrated altarpiece commissioned for the Strozzi Chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence. This later composition, however, differs significantly from the Pontedera painting (2).
The present work is compositionally closer to the 1599 version, retaining its overall arrangement while introducing a number of variations. These differences are characteristic of Empoli’s practice of adapting established compositions to suit different contexts and commissions.
The painting’s intimate scale and the choice of support suggest that it was intended for private devotion.
Notes Show/Hide
(1) Alessio Marabottini, L’Empoli, in collana «I professori del disegno», vol. 3, Rome 1988, pls. 31, 31a-d.
(2) Ibid., pls. 57, 57 a-b.
