Annunciation

The Annunciation is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci showing the arch-angel Gabriel delivering the news to Mary that she would be the future mother to Jesus of Nazareth.

Painted between 1472 and 1475, Leonardo's Annunciation was eventually purchased by Ezio Auditore and placed in the gallery at the Villa Auditore.^[1] The painting was later taken during the Papal attack on Monteriggioni in 1500,^[2] led by the Templar Cesare Borgia.^[3]

Six years after the attack on Monteriggioni, Ezio Auditore—whilst looking for a kidnapped Leonardo—learned that the Annunciation held part of a map identifying the location of the Temple of Pythagoras, and that the painting was in the possession of Lucrezia Borgia, who resided with her husband Alfonso I d'Esta in Delizia di Belriguardo.^[2] Ezio travelled to Belriguardo and, after tricking Lucrezia into revealing the painting's location, regained it for himself.^[4]

At some point before May 1519, the painting was broken into four sections and its pieces scattered throughout the city of Florence as part of the quest for the havens Leonardo had devised.^[5] The Assassins located the fragments, as well as a matrix meant to hold the pieces, from many landmarks and managed to reassemble the painting.^[6]