The Annunciation

1510/1515

Giannicola di Paolo

Painter, Umbrian, c. 1460 - 1544

Two round, gold frames each show a person from the waist up in this nearly square painting. The rest of the panel is filled with vegetal and animal designs against a black background. A pair of nude winged angels are beneath each “framed” picture. All the people have pale skin and delicate features. The two people in the frames, Gabriel and Mary, have honey-brown hair and the pairs of angels below have short, blond hair. In the circular frame to our left, Gabriel looks to our right in profile. Plum-purple wings curve up and out from the shoulders. Gabriel wears a sage-green garment with harvest-yellow sleeves and a raspberry-pink robe. A stem of white lilies is held in one hand and the other gestures to Mary, to our right. Mary’s body is angled toward Gabriel, and she looks off to our left. She wears a garnet-red dress under a light blue robe, and her hands are together in prayer. A stone ledge runs behind both Gabriel and Mary, and a lectern holding a book sits on the ledge behind Mary. Behind both Mary and Gabriel, distant hills lead back to bodies of water that wind around rocks and buildings to hazy mountains along the horizons. A tiny gold crab perches on the top of the frame above Gabriel. Pelican-like birds and dragon-like creatures are surrounded by swirling vines and swags above and below the frames. The two pairs of angels take up the bottom third of the panel. The two angels in each pair mirror each other. The angels sit with their knees facing opposite directions, their knees crossed away from us, on altar-like structures. The left pair of angels have olive-green and mauve-pink wings, and the other pair have green and lavender-purple wings. All four have their eyes closed. Each altar is covered with a gold-edged, white scroll. All four angels rest one elbow on the rounded body of an urn sitting on the altars. The angels rest their chins in those hands, and each holds a scrolling vine with the other hand. The vines meet in the middle to support a flaming cauldron.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 40.3 × 35.9 cm (15 7/8 × 14 1/8 in.)
    framed: 49.53 × 44.77 × 6.99 cm (19 1/2 × 17 5/8 × 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.155

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

William G. Coesvelt, London, in 1836;[1] (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 13 June 1840, no. 37, as by Raphael); purchased by Farquhar.[2] Granville Edward Harcourt Vernon [1816-1861], Grove Hall, Nottinghamshire, England, by 1857; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Selina Vernon [later Lady Hervey], until at least 1894.[3] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] Included in Collection of Pictures of W.G. Coesvelt, Esq., of London, London, 1836: no. 80, as by "Raffaelle".
[2] According to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue, noted in Kress collection records, in NGA curatorial files.
[3] Lady Hervey lent the painting to exhibitions in 1883 and 1893-1894.
[4] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:361-362. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2059.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1857

  • Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 144, as by Raphael.

1883

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, 1883, no. 176, as by Raphael.

1893

  • Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550, New Gallery, London, 1893-1894, no. 246, as by Raphael.

1979

  • Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 84, as by Perugino.

1983

  • Raphael and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 24, repro.

2023

  • Przebvszeni: Ruiny Antyku i Narodziny Włoskiego Renesansu [Awakened: The Ruins of Antiquity and the Birth of the Italian Renaissance], Warsaw Royal Castle, 2023, no. 56, repro.

Bibliography

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1909: 193.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 149, no. 266, as by Pietro Perugino.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 245, repro. 164, as by Pietro Perugino.

1944

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 39, repro., as by Perugino.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 68, repro., as by Perugino.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 94, repro., as by Pietro Perugino.

  • Camesasca, Ettore. Tutta la pittura del Perugino. Milan, 1959: 93, as by Pietro Perugino.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 100, as by Pietro Perugino.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 88, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 103-104, fig. 254, as by Raphael.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:333, as Workshop of Pietro Perugino, Angel and Virgin of Annunciation in roundels among Grotteschi.

1969

  • Camesasca, Ettore. L’opera completa del Perugino. Milan, 1969: 104-105, cat. 78, as by Pietro Perugino.

1971

  • Dussler, Luitpold. Raphael: A Critical Catalogue of his Pictures, Wall-Paintings and Tapestries. London, 1971: 67, as not by Raphael.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 161, 645, as by Pietro Perugino.

1974

  • Fahy, Everett. “Review. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XII-XV Century by Fern Rusk Shapley; Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XV-XVI Century by Fern Rusk Shapley; Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery by Charles Seymour; Italian Primitives: The Case History of a Collection and its Conservation by Charles Seymour.” Art Bulletin, vol. 56, no. 2 (1974): 285, as not by Raphael.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 262, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:361-362; 2:pl. 260, as by Pietro Perugino.

1981

  • De Vecchi, Pierluigi. Raffaello, la pittura. Florence, 1981: 261, as among works attributed to Raphael.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 108, no. 80, color repro.

  • Scarpellini, Pietro. Perugino. Milan, 1984: 50, 112, cat. 138, fig. 231.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 175, repro.

1989

  • Todini, Filippo. La pittura umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento. 2 vols. Milan, 1989: 1:80, as by Giannicola di Paolo (?).

1997

  • Antenucci Becherer, Joseph. "Perugino in America: Masterpieces, Myths, and Mistaken Identities." In Joseph Antenucci Becherer, ed. Pietro Perugino: Master of the Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat., The Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, 1997: 117.

2004

  • Gardner von Teuffel, Christa. “Carpenteria e machine d’altare. Per la storia della ricostruzione delle pale di San Pietro.” In Vittoria Garibaldi and Francesco Federico Mancini, eds. Perugino: il divin pittore. Exh. cat. Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, 2004: 149, fig. 11.

  • Gardner von Teuffel, Christa. “La pala d’altare maggiore di Perugino per San Pietro a Perugia: struttura, collocazione e programma.” In Laura Teza, ed. Pietro Vannuci il Perugino. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di studio, 25-28 ottobre 2000. Perugia, 2004: 352, fig. 12.

2006

  • Higgitt, Catherine et al. “Working with Perugino: The Technique of an Annunciation attributed to Giannicola di Paolo.” National Gallery Technical Bulletin 27 (2006): 100, 110 n. 75.

2011

  • Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 190 n. 57, 312.

Wikidata ID

Q20175167

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