Study for the Angel of the Annunciation

The artwork

The lines you see over the angel are not a flaw: they are the grid Pontormo used to carry the drawing from the sheet to the wall. It comes printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• Black chalk, red chalk and white chalk: the warm tones of old master drawings.
• On Amalfi paper the tones of the drawing stand out: ideal for a study or a hallway.
• A gift for those who draw, for students of art, for lovers of Pontormo.

The sheet dates from the years of the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicita, Florence, around 1527. There Pontormo painted an Annunciation in fresco, with the angel on one side of the window and the Virgin on the other: this is the study for the angel. The squaring, a grid drawn in red chalk over the drawing, was used to enlarge it: each small square on the sheet became a larger square on the wall.

The original sheet measures 39.2 by 21.4 centimetres (15.4 x 8.4 in) and is held at the Uffizi, in the Prints and Drawings Department. It is among the drawings shown at the exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, a few steps from the panel Pontormo painted for the same chapel.

In a study, above a desk or along a hallway: it is the gift for those who draw and for anyone who loves to see how the great masters worked.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
Framed size: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with a gold fillet, handmade, with glass