The Archangel Gabriel

This image of the archangel Gabriel is a fragment from a much larger painting of the Annunciation, which had the Virgin Mary on the right (now in a private collection). The white lily held by the archangel is symbolic of Mary's purity. The perfectly regular profile, the long curling hair, the gracefulness of the hands, and the overall emphasis on contour lines are characteristic of later 15th-century Central Italian painting, of which Signorelli was one of the great masters.