The painting was made using oil and tempera on a large poplar panel and depicts the Annunciation, a popular biblical subject in 15th-century Florence.

The subject of the annunciation was very popular for contemporaneous artworks painted in Christian countries such as Italy and had been depicted many times in Florentine art, including several examples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico.

[2] The marble table in front of Mary probably is derived from the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which Verrocchio had sculpted during this same period.

Of great refinement is the semi-transparent veil under the book of the Holy Scriptures that the Virgin is reading, symbol of the prophecies of the Old Testament.

This could be a reflection of Leonardo's early research into optics, which takes into consideration a lateral viewpoint - and lowered due to the initial location of the painting over a side altar in a Church.

However, in 1869, Karl Eduard von Liphart, a prominent figure in the German art community in Florence, specified the painting as a youthful work by Leonardo.