The Annunciation

The present piece along with A.6-1957 are alternative sketch-models for a single altarpiece, this relief showing a design at a less evolved stage. They are in reverse to the composition of the altar. They were once thought to be early projects by Filippo della Valle for his altarpiece of the same subject in Sant'Ignacio, Rome, but their style and handling do not correspond with that of della Valle, and they are composed in the reverse sense to the altarpiece. The handling is strikingly similar to that in a sketch model now in San Francisco (De Young Memorial Museum) for the statue of Pope Alexander VIII by the Genoese sculptor Angelo de' Rossi's, and the relief style compares closely with that of de' Rossi's marble relief on the tomb of Alexander VIII in Saint Peter's Rome. It seems possible that they are models by de' Rossi for an altarpiece which was projected but never executed.