The Annunciation.

The feast of the Annunciation falls on the 25th March with us.

Angels of the Annunciation!

By Botticelli, in the Uffizi The Annunciation.

By Fra Angelico, in the Convent of S. Marco The Annunciation.

The altar picture in the Martelli chapel, where the sympathetic Donatello monument (in the same medium as his "Annunciation" at S. Croce) is foundon the way to the Libraryis by Lippo Lippi, and is notable for the pretty Virgin receiving the angel's news.

In any collection of Annunciations this picture would find a prominent place.

Finally, there is a Luca predella, No. 1298, representing the Annunciation, the Birth of Christ (in which Joseph is older almost than in any version), and the Adoration of the Magi, all notable for freedom and richness.

The probabilities are that the Annunciation is an early work and that the ascription is accurate: at Oxford is a drawing known to be Leonardo's that is almost certainly a study for a detail of this work, while among the Leonardo drawings in the His de la Salle collection at the Louvre is something very like a first sketch of the whole.

Among the other pictures in this room is the rather hot "Adoration of the Magi," by Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507), over the Leonardo "Annunciation," a glowing scene of colour and animation: this Cosimo being the Cosimo from whom Piero di Cosimo took his name, and an associate of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, and Luca Signorelli on the Sixtine Chapel frescoes.

The glory of the end wall is the "Annunciation," reproduced in this book.

Among "Annunciations," as among pictures, it stands very high.

Next the "Annunciation" on the left is, to my eyes, one of Botticelli's most attractive works: No. 1303, just the Madonna and Child again, in a niche, with roses climbing behind them: the Madonna one of his youngest, and more placid and simple than most, with more than a hint of the Verrocchio type in her face.

Not only among works of sculpture but among Annunciations this relief holds a very high place.

The exact date of the recommendation by Father Paul and the divines should have been given;then the date of the public annunciation of the reconciliation between the Pope and Venetian Republic; and lastly the day on which Wotton did present the book;for even this Burnet leaves uncertain.

Akbar must have been a broad-minded man, for we found paintings of the Annunciation side by side with pictures of the Hindu god Ganesh.

He further stated that a "Te Deum" had been chanted, both in the Palazzo Pitti and at the church of the Annunciation at Florence; after which the Princesse Marie, declared Queen of France, had dined in public, seated under a dais above her uncle; and at the conclusion of the repast, the Duke of Bracciano had presented the water to wash her hands, and the Marquis de Sillery, the French Ambassador, the napkin upon which she wiped them.

Among other subjects she has painted an "Annunciation," the "Fates," and "Angiola," reproduced in this book.

For the Virgin in her 'Annunciation' a model was first posed in the nude, and then another draped, the artist sketching the figure in the nude, draping it from the second model.

The Annunciations and Nativities were still distinguished by a chaste and sacred simplicity.

Of six Annunciations painted by Rubens, five represent the event; the sixth is one of his magnificent and most palpable allegories, all glowing with life and reality.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in the historical Annunciations is to be accounted for by the words of St. Luke, and the visible form of the Dove is conventional and authorized.

When we thus find a prediction to break down suddenly in the middle, we have the well-known mark of its earlier part being written after the event: and it becomes unreasonable to doubt that the detailed annunciations of this 24th chapter of Matthew, were first composed very soon after the war of Titus, and never came from the lips of Jesus at all.

It contains a pillar-piscina, and the tomb of Sir John Newton (son of Sir Richard) and his lady, above which is a relief of the Annunciation.

" The mere annunciation of a new plan awakens universal attention.