These holiday cards celebrate a detail from one of the most beloved paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Robert Lehman Collection. The Annunciation (ca. 1485-92) by Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, 1444/45–1510) shows the Virgin kneeling in humility as the Angel Gabriel delivers the news that she's to bear the son of God. This painting was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image; while the patron's identity remains unknown, this picture was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome during the 17th century.
