NARRATOR: This rectangular marble panel depicts the Annunciation to the Virgin, with the archangel Gabriel emerging under an arcade to the left. Above the arcade, a city wall forms the backdrop. This is a distinctly Florentine sculpture, particularly in its use of white marble and the style of the carving, and in the use of inlaid stones. The inlaid stone here is the greenish-black serpentine. It’s found in a lot of Tuscan sculpture from this period. The relief dates from the end of the twelfth century, and was originally a panel that decorated the pulpit in the Florentine church of San Piero Scheraggio. The church itself no longer survives but the other panels from this pulpit still exist. They consist of carvings that show the Tree of Jesse, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Baptism of Christ, and the Deposition.