The Virgin of the Annunciation

Amid the weary academies that had dragged on from the cinquecento, another radical change, in many respects an opposite one, was nevertheless being prepared in the Rome that witnessed Caravaggio's revolution; in any case, what was happening in painting was certainly not foreign to it. Francesco Mochi was the first true Baroque sculptor; movement in action was the problem of his whole life. Perhaps those who seek its roots, through his master Mariani, in the painting of Tintoretto are not mistaken, bearing in mind that Mochi was a painter's apprentice before devoting himself to sculpture. He gave an early anticipation of these concerns in the Orvieto Annunciation (1605-1608), executed on commission from the Farnese, who would remain his patrons ever after.