The ''Virgin Annunciate'' is a painting by the Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

artist

Antonello da Messina Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina ( 1430February 1479), was an Italian painter from Messina, active during the Early Italian Renaissance. ...

, housed in the

Palazzo Abatellis Palazzo Abatellis (also known as Palazzo Patella) is a palazzo in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy, located in the Kalsa quarter. It is home to the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, the Gallery of Art for the Sicilian region. History The palaz ...

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, region of Sicily, Italy. Probably painted in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

in 1476, it shows

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

interrupted at her reading by the Angel of the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

. It is painted in oil on panel, a technique introduced to Italy by its artist, who had learned it from North European artists such as

Petrus Christus Petrus Christus (; 1410/1420 – 1475/1476) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and Rogier va ...

- by thus abandoning tempera technique he was able to produce the finely-detailed works typical of him. Rolf Toman (ed.): ''Die Kunst der italienischen Renaissance. Architektur, Skulptur, Malerei, Zeichnung.'' 2007, S. 361. "The painting was bequeathed to the Museo Nazionale (later, the Palazzo Abatellis) in 1906 by the Cavaliere Di Giovanni, who had purchased it from the Colluzio family in Palermo..."

Analysis

As is typical in individual portraits by the same artist, Mary is shown three-quarter-length. He had used the blue cloak in the shape of two triangles a year earlier in another work on the same subject now in Munich's

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinak ...

. Mary is shown looking out of the picture, not at the viewer but an unseen

archangel Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

out of frame to the left, Robert A. Gahl, Jr.: ''„Tempo narrativo nell'Annunziata dell'Antonello da Messina“ (Narrative Time in Antonello da Messina's L'Annunziata).'' 2003. thus allowing the painter to dispense with also painting Gabriel. The unusually simple depiction of Mary dispenses with the lush brocade folds in Antonello's later works Manfred Wundram: ''Frührenaissance.'' 1980, S. 220. and the gold background used by earlier artists, showing her simply as a young Jewish woman surprised by the archangel's words. With its few heavy folds, Keith Christiansen in Antonello da Messina: ''Sicily's Renaissance master / Gioacchino Barbera'', with notes by Keith Christiansen and Andrea Bayer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Yale University Press New Haven London, 2005 for an exhibition ISBN 0-300-11648-9, S. 15
online
her simple woollen garment anticipates the

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

, whilst the diagonally-placed lectern seems to break out of the picture plane and open up to the viewer. The image's symmetrical rigour draws on

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

, Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: ''1000 Meisterwerke der Malerei von 1300 bis 1850.'' 2005, S. 35. whose works Antonello had seen in

Urbino Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of ...

in the 1460s. The restrained palette and simple background are also notable, Stefano Zuffi: ''Die Renaissance. Kunst, Architektur, Geschichte, Meisterwerke.'' 2008, S. 134. focussing the viewer's attention on Mary's emotions.

References

External links

''Antonello da Messina: Sicily's Renaissance Master''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on this painting (cat. no. 6) {{DEFAULTSORT:Virgin Annunciate (Antonello Da Messina, Palermo) Paintings depicting the Annunciation Paintings by Antonello da Messina 1470s paintings Paintings in Palazzo Abatellis Books in art