ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with three Post-Byzantine Cretan icons, acquired in 1902 by Henry Walters from the Massarenti Collection. The Walters Art Gallery possesses a significant number of Cretan works of art dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, only a few of which have thus far been published. The iconographic scheme of this Annunciation includes the archangel Gabriel on the left and the standing Virgin on the right. Gabriel, shown walking towards the Virgin, has his right hand raised in blessing and in his left he holds a sceptre signifying his role as a messenger. The Walters Art Gallery Annunciation has a strong Late Byzantine character, which is obvious in the other Cretan representations too. This has been explained through the dependence of the composition on fourteenth-century examples from Byzantium.
