Federico Barocci is best known as a painter and draughtsman of religious subjects, and yet the four prints he made in the 1580s, including this etching and engraving, number among some of the most important and influential prints of the sixteenth century. "The Annunciation" is based on Barocci's painting of the same composition, a work commissioned by Francesco Maria della Rovere, the duke of Urbino. Not only did Barocci develop an extraordinary system of lines and dots to suggest the varying textures of fur, flesh, feathers, and fabric, but also carefully worked out the play of light and dark both to model the figures and their surroundings as well as to underscore the narrative. Through the window, one glimpses the ducal palace in the artist's native city of Urbino. The natural light of his vista is set in contrast to the divine light that shines from above to illuminate the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Virgin Mary to inform her that she will be the mother of Jesus Christ.