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Masolino da Panicale

The Virgin Annunciate, c. 1430

Not on View

Medium

tempera (?) on panel

Dimensions

overall: 76 × 57 cm (29 15/16 × 22 7/16 in.)

framed (with NGA 1939.1.225): 111.76 × 162.08 × 15.88 cm (44 × 63 13/16 × 6 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.226

Artists / Makers

Masolino da Panicale (artist) Florentine, c. 1383 - 1435 or after

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower left on the Virgin's book: Ecce Virgo [con]cipiet [et] p / pariet fili[u]m / et uocabit / ur nom[en] eiu / [s] emanuel / butirum [et] mel / comedit ut fiat [sic] / reprobare ma / lu[m] [et] eligiere b / onum (Propter hoc dabit Dominus ipse vobis signum. Ecce virgo concipiet, et paret filium, et vocabitur nomen eius Emmanuel. Butyrum et mel comedet, ut sciat reprobare malum, et eligere bonum; Isaiah 7:14-15)

Provenance

Count Gustav Adolf Wilhelm von Ingenheim [1789-1855], Berlin and Ober-Rengersdorf, by the 1810s or 1820s;[1] sold 1930 by his descendants to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold May 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] According to C.A. Böttiger ("Gemäldesammlung des Grafen von Ingenheim," Artistisches Notizenblatt [appendix to Abend Zeitung] no. 6, [March 1827]: 26-28), Count Ingenheim acquired his Italian paintings mostly during two trips to Italy in 1816-1817 and 1822-1824. In 1827 the collection was about to be transferred from the family palace in Berlin to Paris. By 1922 the paintings, in part at least, were housed in Schloss Reisewitz in Silesia (see Richard Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century, Section IV, Vol. II, Nardo di Cione, New York, 1960: 24), whereas the NGA painting (along with NGA 1939.1.226) was probably in Ober-Rengersdorf, northeast of Dresden, in 1929 (see Bernard Berenson's letter to Edward Fowles of Duveen's Paris office on 22 June of that year, and Fowles' report to London of 3 July, copies in NGA curatorial files; Box 256, Folder 13, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles).

[2] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of thirteen paintings and one sculpture, including "paintings representing 'The Annunciation' by Masolino," is dated 18 May 1936; the provenance is given as "Coll'n. Count von Ingenheim" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2350.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Ingenheim, Gustav Adolf Wilhelm von, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.

Exhibition History

1935: Exposition de L'Art Italien de Cimbaue à Tiepolo, Petit Palais, Paris, 1935, no. 304.

2019: Fra Angelico and the Rise of the Florentine Renaissance, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2019.

Bibliography

1931: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Eine Verkündigung Masolinos." Pantheon 8 (October 1931): 413-416, repro.

1933: Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:187

1934: Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. Paris, 1934: 80, 154, pls. 185, 186.

1935: Gilles de la Tourette, François. “Chefs-d’oeuvre de la peinture italienne au Petit Palas.” La Renaissance 18 (1935): 18, repro.

1935: Serra, Luigi. “La mostra dell’antica arte italiana a Parigi.” Bollettino d’arte 29 (1935): 36.

1939: Prampolini, Giovanni. L’Annunciazione nei pittori primitivi italiani. Milan, 1939: 53, repro.

1940: Longhi, Roberto. “Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio.” Critica d’Arte 5 (1940): 181-182.

1940: Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 274.

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 30, repro.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 126-127, no. 337.

1941: Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 177.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 150.

1944: Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 18, repro.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 27, repro.

1948: Kimball, Fisk and Lionello Venturi. Great Paintings in America. New York, 1948: 36, repro.

1948: Salmi, Mario. Masaccio. 2nd ed. Rome, 1948: 111, 209-210, pls. 180, 181.

1951: Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951: 276.

1953: Micheletti, Emma. Masolino da Panicale. Milan, 1953: 38, 53, pls. 47, 48.

1956: Longhi, Roberto. “Fatti di Masaccio e Masolino.” In Edizione delle opere complete di Roberto Longhi. 14 vols. Florence and Milan, 1956-2000: 8, part 1 (1975): 48.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 49, repro.

1961: Davies, Martin. National Gallery Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1961: 355.

1962: Gioseffi, Decio. “Domenico Veneziano, l’esordio masaccesco e la tavola con i SS. Girolamo e Giovanni Battista della National Gallery di Londra.” Emporium 155 (February 1962): 62.

1962: Vayer, Lajos. Masolino és Róma: Mecénas és múvész a Reneszánsz Kezdetén. Budapest, 1962: 250.

1963: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:137.

1963: Berti, Luciano. “Miniature dell’Angelico (e altro).” Acropoli 3 (1963): 8, 36 n. 64.

1964: Berti, Luciano. Masaccio. Milan, 1964: 142 n. 191.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 84.

1966: Parronchi, Alessandro. “Sulla perduta Annunciazione di Masaccio: Ricerche e proposte.” Studi urbinati di urbinati, filosofia, e letteratura 40 (1966): 175 n. 26.

1966: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 93-94, fig. 255.

1967: Berti, Luciano. Masaccio. University Park, PA, 1967: 149 n. 191.

1967: Klesse, Brigitte. Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts. Bern, 1967: 110, 439, no. 250.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 74, repro.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 123, 645.

1973: Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 79.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 218, repro.

1976: Watkins, Law B. The Brancacci Chapel: Meaning and Use. Ann Arbor, MI, 1976: 154.

1979: Arte nell’Aretino. Seconda mostra di restauri dal 1975 al 1979. Dipinti e sculture restaurati dal XIII al XVIII secolo. Exh. cat. San Francesco, Arezzo, 1979: 46.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:307; 2:pl. 220.

1984: Lotti, Marcello, ed. Masaccio e l’Angelico. Due capolavori della Diocesi di Fiesole. Exh. cat. Palazzina Mangani, Fiesole, 1984: 38.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 76, no. 21, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 252, repro.

1985: Joannides, Paul. “A Masolino Partially Reconstructed.” Source 4 (1985): 1-5, repro.

1987: Boskovits, Miklós. “Il percorso di Masolino: Precisazioni sulla cronologia e sul catalogo.” Arte Cristiana 75 (1987): 53-55, 63 n. 28, nn. 58-60, repro.

1987: Proto Pisani, Rosanna Caterina, ed. Masolino a Empoli. Exh. cat. Chiesa di Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani, Empoli, 1987: 24.

1987: Strehlke, Carl Brandon, and Mark Tucker. “The Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece: New Observations.” Art Cristiana 75 (1987): 105.

1988: Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Arte in Lombardia tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1988: 207.

1988: Joannides, Paul. “The Colonna Triptych by Masolino and Masaccio: Collaboration and Chronology.” Arte Cristiana 76 (1988): 346 n. 2.

1990: Roberts, Perri Lee. “Lost and Found: The San Niccolò Annunciation Reonsidered.” Southeastern College Art Conference Review 11 (1990): 275 n. 25.

1993: Joannides, Paul. Masaccio and Masolino: A Complete Catalogue. London, 1993: 90-95, 436-439, pls. 61-65, 445-446, 448, 451.

1993: Roberts, Perri Lee. Masolino da Panicale. Oxford, 1993: 100, 101, 194-195, 210, 212.

1994: Joannides, Paul. “Review of Perri Lee Roberts, Masolino da Panicale (1993).” Apollo 139 (1994): 79.

2002: Strehlke, Carl Brandon, and Cecilia Frosinini. The Panel Paintings of Masolino and Masaccio: The Role of Technique. Milan, 2002: 206-213, repro.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 472-478, color repro.