Cestello Annunciation

{{Short description|Painting by Sandro Botticelli}}

{{Infobox artwork

|image_file = Botticelli, annunciazione di cestello 02.jpg

|title = The Annunciation

|artist = Sandro Botticelli

|year = 1489

|medium = Tempera on panel

|height_metric = 150

|width_metric = 156

|metric_unit = cm

|imperial_unit = in

|city = Florence

|museum = Uffizi

}}

The Cestello Annunciation is a tempera painting on panel made in 1489 by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. It was painted for the patron Benedetto di Ser Giovanni Guardi to adorn the church of the Florentine monastery of Cestello, which is now known as Santa Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi.{{cite web|url=http://www.virtualuffizi.com/annunciation.html|title=Annunciation|website=Virtual Uffizi Gallery|accessdate=February 27, 2015}}{{cite book|title=Botticelli|date=2010|publisher=ATS Italia|last1=Montresor|first1=Carlo}}

The subject of the painting is the Annunciation, in which the Archangel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary to 'announce' to her (hence 'Annunciation') that she has been chosen by God to bear the Christ child should she accept this invitation. Her 'fiat' (Let it be done to me) is the Annunciation. If She had said no, there would be no Redemption for mankind. Underneath the painting on its original frame are words in Latin from St. Luke's Gospel 1:35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee."

The subject of the Annunciation is common in Christian art{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Peter |last2=Murray |first2=Linda |title=The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture |date=1996 |isbn=0198661657 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00murr/page/23 23] |publisher=Oxford University Press |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00murr/page/23 }}{{cite book |last=Vassilaki |first=Maria |title=Images of the Mother of God |date=2005 |isbn=0754636038 |pages=158–159|publisher=Ashgate Pub. }} and has been depicted by many artists, in multiple formats, and in different time periods. In addition to the Cestello Annunciation, Botticelli also painted a 1485 Annunciation now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art{{cite web |title=The Annunciation |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/459016 |website=The Collection Online |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |accessdate=March 3, 2015}} and a 1495-1500 version now housed in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.{{cite book |last1=Gebhart |first1=Emile |last2=Charles |first2=Victoria |title=Botticelli |date=2012 |publisher=Parkstone International |isbn=978-1780429953}}