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The Annunciation by Giovanni di Balduccio is a pair of finely carved marble sculptures depicting the moment that the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary at Nazareth that she will become the mother of Jesus Christ.
The two separate figures stand in relationship to each other. Gabriel, slightly smaller than Mary, looks at her with his head turned slightly to his left. Mary, seemingly surprised, returns his gaze.
In 2005, the sculptures were identified as the largest sculptural elements preserved from a chapel in the fortress Rocca di Porta Galliera, in Bologna. The chapel was commissioned for Pope John XXII in the early 1330s and was decorated with marble sculptures carved by Giovanni di Balduccio, as well as frescoes (now lost) and an altarpiece both painted by Giotto. The chapel was destroyed shortly after the Papal Legate was expelled from the city in March 1334, and its artworks were dispersed.
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