In 1252, the painting of the Annunciation, which had been begun by one of the monks at the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata Church (Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation) but abandoned in despair because he did not feel he could create a beautiful enough image, was supposedly completed by an angel while he slept. This painting was placed in the church and became so venerated that in 1444 the Gonzaga family from Mantua financed a special tribune.

 first oriental rug to appear in a European painting