Greek Art and The Italian Renaissance

It's common knowledge that the Renaissance in Italy, which began arguably in the late 12th century, was deeply influenced by Roman art and sculpture, which in turn was greatly inspired by Classical Greek art and sculpture. But seeing direct relationships between Renaissance paintings created during the 1400s and Greek sculpture from around 500 BC - a gap of 2000 years - in the flesh, is quite a delight.

The Greek relief sculptures below (both are from the Archaeological Museum in Athens) are marble stelae (or upright slabs) used to decorate the graves of Greek nobility. The composition of the relief with the woman bowing down in grief, closely resembles the structure of Annunciation paintings of the Renaissance. Even the hand gesture of the figure holding a bowl predicts the hand gesture of the Angel Gabriel as he blesses the Virgin in some paintings. The Annunciation is the announcement by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. I've chosen Fra Angelico's Angelico's fresco in Florence (1437-1446) here as an example.

The second stelae, which shows (if I remember correctly) a father bidding farewell to his young son, suspiciously resembles the composition of the right side of Masaccio's The Tribute Money (1427) fresco in Florence. Masaccio's painting shows St. Peter paying off a tax collector.