Annunciation

Tuscan sculpture of the 13th century is marked by a new influx of Lombard masters, bearers this time of a style that had become mechanical and affected. The atony of Guido Begarelli's figures, nailed to a cold inanity by the polished surface of the marble, can nevertheless at times attain a mood of meditative sadness, as in this panel where the charmingly descriptive details of a domestic interior are set, in significant contrast, against the grave dismay that follows the Annunciation, of theatrical power in its very fixity.