Welcome back, Artemisia: the Annunciation at the Diocesano

It has arrived with full honours at the Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum, where it will be on display to the public from 27 to 31 January 2027. It is Artemisia Gentileschi’s Annunciation, the centrepiece of the eighteenth edition of ‘Capolavoro per Milano’, the Christmas event through which the Diocesan Museum makes a masterpiece of sacred art available (and open for contemplation) to the people of Milan. Indeed, for Artemisia this marks a significant return, a sign of favour: the 2019 masterpiece, an ‘Adoration of the Magi’, was also hers. On that occasion, the precious loan came from the Cathedral of San Procolo, the Duomo of Pozzuoli. This time, the Annunciation forms part of the collections of the Capodimonte Museum and Royal Park, “an extraordinary museum, the sight of which can even be overwhelming given the wealth of galleries and masterpieces”, as stated by the director of the Diocesano, Nadia Righi, who has managed to forge a remarkable scientific relationship and bond of kindred spirits with the great Neapolitan museum (this is the third loan to the Milanese museum). Painted in 1630, it is the first work the artist produced after her arrival in Naples.