What do the Tuscan towns of San Giovanni Valdarno and Cortona have in common?
Both preserve traces of the artistic activity of a great Florentine painter of the Renaissance: Giovanni da Fiesole, born Guido di Pietro, universally known as Beato Angelico.
In San Giovanni Valdarno, the Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a small museum of sacred art in the rooms adjacent to the Basilica, houses a masterpiece by Beato Angelico and of Renaissance art in general: the Annunciation, one of the three Annunciations realized by the artist on wood and one of his most delicate works. Made around 1440, it comes from the Franciscan convent of Montecarlo, a few kilometers away from San Giovanni.
The painting mixes both warm and cooler colors, not to mention the gold elements that truly bring the scene to life. You’ll notice a garden behind the arches on the left hand side, a symbol of Mary’s purity. The distant hilltop also features the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In addition to these biblical moments, five key scenes from Mary's life are represented in the lower panels.
