This statue, which still preserves traces of the original painting, comes from an Annunciation group and may be regarded as one of Agostino di Duccio's masterpieces. After early influences from Donatello, the master's individual style developed in Rimini, where he worked as an associate of Alberti. His greatest works, among them lively, decorative reliefs, were executed during the 1460s in Perugia. The present statue, which once stood in one of the chapels of San Lorenzo in Perugia, comes from a later stage; it was executed between 1473 and 1481, during the artist’s second Perugian period, probably when he was working on his last works: the statues of the Oratory of the Maestŕ della Volte and the tomb of Matteo and Elisabetta Geraldini.
Miriam Szőcs