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Once considered a work of the Bolognese master Pellegrino Tibaldi, this Annunciation has now been attributed to Giovanni Francesco Bezzi (called Nosadella), also active in Bologna. A drawing in a private collection helps reconstruct its genesis: the angel originally approached the Virgin Mary from the left, but the artist then flipped the draw­ing and showed him approaching from the right, as in the painting. Evidence in the painting also helps document the painter’s earlier intentions. Gabriel’s head was once positioned higher, and the placement of the dove was moved up; the alterations can be seen through ­x-radiographs and in pentimenti. The changes might have been made to accord better with the original setting, which is still unknown, as is the patron.

Especially striking in this composition is the attention to believable anatomical rendering and to the Virgin Mary’s pivoting movement to look over her shoulder at the angel. In Italian Annunciation scenes, the angel usually approaches the Virgin Mary from the left. Michelangelo had experimented with an Annunciation from the right, however, in drawings made about 1549 to be executed in paintings by his friend Marcello Venusti; a Michelangelo drawing in the British Museum is especially close to the work shown here, as is the painting based on it, in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Since Michelangelo died in 1564, it may be that Nosadella wished to honor the master in this Annunciation, in which muscular, acrobatic cherubs recall the spirit of some of Michelangelo’s Herculean babies.

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In the Annunciation, one of the most common themes in Italian Renaissance art, the archangel Gabriel was usually shown entering from the left. Breaking with Italian precedent, Nosadella reversed the composition of the painting here—a feature rarely found in earlier Italian painting, although it sometimes occurred in the North. It became more common in sixteenth-century Italy as artists like Nosadella strove for originality.

Examination of the panel reveals that the artist struggled to resolve the design. He drew in and painted the archangel’s head and part of his torso and left arm, but then repositioned and repainted the figure, moving him farther away from the Virgin and giving him a more dynamic pose. The earlier position of the archangel’s head can be seen as a ghost-like image (known as a pentimento) showing through the paint surface to the right of the Virgin’s head. Similarly, the earlier position of the dove representing the Holy Ghost can be seen just below the present dove.