Riccardo Riccardi’s inspiration for the paintings exhibited was his own chamber opera entitled  L’Avvenimento (An Occurrence) on a libretto by Filippo Candiani. What is this Avvenimento? The universal desire for a life transforming experience that seems never to arrive. But there is one who did experience such a transformation, even without seeking it: the Virgin Mary. Hers was the Avvenimento par excellence: a meeting between the divine and the human. Therefore the other major inspiration for these paintings was the moment of the angel’s Annunciation to Mary, as painted in the fresco by Ghirlandaio now in the Loggia del Comune di San Gimignano.