Detail of a Pulpit Relief with the Annunciation in the Cloisters, April 2012

Pulpit Relief with the Annunciation
Carrara Marble inlaid with serpentine
Italy, Tuscany, about 1200
From the church of San Piero Scheraggio at Florence

Accession # 60.140

This relief is one of seven panels decorating a pulpit in the church of San Piero Scheraggio, which was dismantled sometime between 1410 and 1755. In medieval Italy, pulpits were used for the reading of the Gospels and the Epistles and were located on the south side of the choir. Here, the Virgin and the archangel Gabriel stand in separate niches under a city wall. The fluid treatment of the drapery, the form of the figures, and the combination of narrative reliefs with a background of inlaid serpentine are characteristic of Florentine sculpture around 1200.

Text from the Cloisters label.