Resumen de Zanobi Strozzi's 'Annunciation' in the National Gallery
Zanobi Strozzi(1412-68) was a close follower of Fra Angelico, and his works are frequently confused with those of Angelico's other pupils, particularly Domenico di Michelino and the Master of the Buckingham Palace Madonna.1 Recorded mainly as a manuscript illuminator, Zanobi is also known to have painted panels, although no securely documented example survives and no signed works have hitherto been discovered. A painted cross now in the Parish Church of Mocogno, near Modena, which has been identified with the funerary cross from S. Marco, Florence, for which Strozzi was paid in March 1448, is too damaged to be of compara- tive use,2 and Strozzi's documented altar-piece for the Chapel of S. Agnese in S. Egidio (S. Maria Nuova), Florence - for which he was paid between 1434 and 1439 - is not certainly identifiable, although a possible candidate has been proposed and will be discussed below.3 The discovery of his name on the recently cleaned and restored Annunciation in the National Gallery (Fig.4) is therefore extremely important in provid- ing a touchstone for the attribution of panel paintings to Zanobi. This article publishes the 'signature' for the first time and examines the problems of the picture's dating, provenance and patronage.
