Annunciation

Leonardo da Vinci completed this Annunciation around 1472-1475 while working in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop. The scene shows the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary at a stone lectern, with a walled garden and cypress trees behind them. The landscape fades into distant blue mountains using Leonardo's early experiments with atmospheric perspective.

The painting measures 90 by 222 centimeters, unusually wide for an Annunciation scene. Some scholars believe it was originally intended as a predella or furniture panel. Art historians note that Mary's right arm appears too long, possibly the result of Leonardo accounting for a viewer standing to the right. Another painter later extended the angel's wings, which were originally modeled on real bird anatomy.

The work hung in the Olivetan monastery of San Bartolomeo near Florence until 1867, when it moved to the Uffizi Gallery. Initially attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, scholars recognized it as Leonardo's work two years later. It's now considered his earliest known commissioned painting.