The Archangel Gabriel

Masolino da Panicale

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the knees up, a winged angel with blond hair and pale skin faces our right in profile with arms crossed at the chest in this vertical painting. A gleaming gold halo surrounds the head and curls lining the forehead and nape of the neck. The angel looks off to our right with silver-gray eyes, and wears a long gown decorated with a brick-red floral pattern against a black background. Gold, feathered wings extend from the shoulders, and the angel leans forward from the hips. The background behind the angel could be a portion of a wall made from stacked mustard-yellow horizontal bands, perhaps boards, that fills the left half. The right half is filled with swirling shades of caramel and earth brown, and both sides are partially framed with salmon-pink bands. A sliver of floor along the bottom of the painting is patterned with pine-green and burgundy-red tiles separated by cream-white bands.