The impetus of the dashing, powerful and monumental angel comes from Ribera. The conception of space and of the sky, with clouds that grow denser in the area just over the luminous horizon, seeks an effect of mass, and of notable solemnity and force. Behind the balustrade, a rose bush silhouetted by the light behind it stands out as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. The meticulously detailed carpet, with its pattern and rich tactile qualities, is outstanding, as are the delicate sewing basket and cloths that make up a handsome still life. The way the child angels cling to the curtain clearly recalls Cano’s painting, undoubtedly viewed through the work of Herrera Barnuevo.

Along with other works, now destroyed, the four canvases at the Museo del Prado (The Annunciation, P05319; The Visitation, P03136; The Adoration of the Magi, P05318 and The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, P02962) were part of a series painted for an unknown purpose. The Annunciation is dated 1663, which indicates the series was made around that time. As Angulo pointed out when he published some of these pieces in 1958, the horizontal format suggests that, rather than an altarpiece, this series was intended for the naves of a church, the galleries of a cloister or the sacristy of some important temple.

When they entered the Museo de la Trinidad, some were attributed to Rizi while others were listed as anonymous. Not all were included in the Cruzada Catalog, and the series was scattered among various institutions. There is no graphic record of The Nativity, which entered the Supreme Court in 1882 and was lost in a fire there in 1915. Another canvas of nearly identical dimensions, Saint John the Baptist Preaching, hung in the chapel of the now extinct Sociedad de Protectores de los Pobres in 1893 and is now lost. It is unlikely, however, that it belonged to the same group of works.

The series was painted at a moment of fecund maturity, when the artist was about fifty, and some of its pieces can be considered masterpieces (Text drawn from Pérez Sánchez, A. E.: Carreño, Rizi, Herrera y la pintura madrileña de su tiempo. 1650-1700, Ministerio de Cultura, 1986, pp. 252-253).