Trying Skills

This painting by Leonardo Da Vinci was executed around 1472-1475 and is dated by the marble sarcophagus dividing the figures. It was copied from Piero de Medici's tomb which Verrocchio carved in the church of San Lorenzo. In the panel an angel is shown kneeling before the Virgin, to tell her that she will soon become the mother of Christ. The messenger holds a Madonna lily, and this along with the enclosed garden, symbolises virginity.