Virgin and Child with Two Angels (c1475). Tempera on panel. 97 x 71. This is a painting of the Biblical subject of the Annunciation, by the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1472-1475 and housed in the Uffizi gallery of Florence, Italy. The subject matter is drawn from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26-39 and depicts the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to a virgin, Mary, that she would miraculously conceive and give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, and to be called the Son of God whose reign would never end. The subject was very popular for artworks and had been depicted many times in the art of Florence, including several examples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. The details of its commission and its early history remain obscure. In 1867, following Gustav Waagen methods, Baron Liphart identified this Annunciation, newly arrived in the Uffizi Gallery from a xonvent near Florence, as by the young Leonardo, still working in the studio of his master Verrocchio. The painting has since been attributed to different artists, including Leonardo and Verrocchio's contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was more recently determined to be a collaboration between Leonardo and his master Verrocchio, with whom Leonardo collaborated on the Baptism of Jesus. The angel holds a Madonna lily, a symbol of Mary's virginity and of the city of Florence. It is supposed that Leonardo originally copied the wings from those of a bird in flight, but they have since been lengthened by a later artist. When the Annunciation came to the Uffizi in 1867, from the Olivetan monastery of San Bartolomeo, near Florence, it was ascribed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was, like Leonardo, an apprentice in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1869, Karl Eduard von Liphart, the central figure of the German expatriate art colony in Florence, recognized it as a youthful work by da Vinci, one of the first attributions of a surviving work to the youthful Leonardo. Since then a preparatory drawing for the angel's sleeve has been recognized and attributed to Leonardo. Verrocchio used lead-based paint and heavy brush strokes. He left a note for Leonardo to finish the background and the angel. Leonardo used light brush strokes and no lead. When the Annunciation was x-rayed, Verrocchio's work was evident while Leonardo's angel was invisible. The marble table, in front of the Virgin, probably quotes the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which Verrocchio had sculpted during this same period. Some immature hesitancies are usually noted, especially the Virgin's ambiguous spatial relation to the desk and the marble on which it rests. On March 12, 2007, the painting was at the center of a furor between Italian citizens and the Minister of Culture, who decided to place the picture on loan to exhibit in Japan. Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Annunciation. Leonardo da Vinci List of works. Science and inventions. Personal life. Paintings † Medusa. ** The Annunciation. ** The Baptism of Christ. The Madonna of the Carnation. Ginevra de' Benci. Benois Madonna. The Adoration of the Magi. St. Jerome in the Wilderness. ** Madonna Litta. The Virgin of the Rocks. Portrait of a Musician. Lady with an Ermine. ** The Virgin of the Rocks. The Last Supper. * �oe La Belle Ferronni�re ”. * Salvator Mundi. ** Madonna of the Yarnwinder. The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. Mona Lisa. † The Battle of Anghiari. * �oe La Scapigliata ”. † Leda and the Swan. St. John the Baptist. Sculptures Sforza monument. * Horse and Rider. Works on paper Vitruvian Man. * Portrait of a Young Fianc�e. The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. Self-portrait. Manuscripts Codex Arundel. Codex Atlanticus. Codex on the Flight of Birds. Codex Leicester. Codex Madrid. Codex Trivulzianus. Codex Urbinas. Other projects De Divina Proportione. Architonnerre. Leonardo's crossbow. Leonardo's robot. Leonardo's self-propelled cart. Viola organista. Leonardeschi Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio. Cesare da Sesto. Giampietrino. Giovanni Agostino da Lodi. Bernardino Luini. Cesare Magni. Marco d'Oggiono. Francesco Melzi. Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis. Sala�. Andrea Solari.