Annunciation

This is a charcoal drawing, black pencil and chalk on cardboard, made by Alessandro Franchi around 1884 as a preparatory study for the cycle of frescoes that he would finish painting two years later in the Raffo Chapel, in the Misericordia cemetery in Siena, as well as the nearby designs with The Nativity and The Samaritan woman at the Well.
In this horizontal cartoon, under a classical colonnade on the left, the Archangel Gabriel is on his knees, on his side, with his right hand raised toward the Virgin, who is seated on the right, on a wall. With one hand holding a book, she places her other on her chest with a serene expression on her face. Beyond the harmonious colonnade, the two figures stand out against the background of the Tuscan countryside, whose three-dimensionality is conveyed through many shades of white chalk.
The artist is inspired, revisiting them, by the Florentine fifteenth-century models, testifying to the significant evolution of his style that in the mature phase adopted a fluent and relaxed narrative, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the complex beauty of nature.
From humble beginnings, but greatly talented in graphics, Franchi studied at the municipal school of drawing in Prato and later at the Institute of Fine Arts in Siena, where he studied under the famous painter Luigi Mussini, exponent of the current of Italian purism at the time. Drawing was a common habit among the generation of painters at the time of the Restoration and Romanticism, and copying ancient artists, especially those of the 15th century, was an integral part of their apprenticeship.