The Annunciation

c. 1583/1584

Veronese

Painter, Venetian, 1528 - 1588

Italian 16th Century

Painter

A winged angel strides toward a young woman who kneels at the foot of a bed, while an older, bearded man, surrounded by several winged babies and a dove, hover overhead in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin. To our left, the blond angel steps forward on his right, sandaled foot. He holds a long stem with a white lily in his left hand, farther from us, and raises his other hand to the sky. His charcoal-gray wings are partly extended, and he wears long, flowing, goldenrod-yellow and sage-green garments with a green and blue striped sash wrapped around his chest. His lips are parted, and he looks toward the woman to our right. The woman, Mary, kneels at a wooden lectern that holds an open book near the foot of the bed. Pillows and a moss-green bed curtain are visible behind her. A cobalt-blue mantle drapes across her shoulders and wraps around her rust-red gown and caramel-brown shawl. Mary’s brown hair is partially covered by a golden brown cloth, and her dark eyes are lowered, looking down to our left. Her body is angled to our right, hands crossed over her chest, but her shoulders and head have begun to turn to look back at the angel. Almost lost in shadow, a translucent glass vase with a single stem of rose-red buds sits on the ground next to her. The floor is covered with geometric patterns in tones of brown, gray, and black. A balustrade under arched openings encloses the room beyond the bed. At the foot of one column, a striped cat laps from a saucer. Floating above the pair the bearded man looks down toward Mary, his hands and arms extended in front of him. He also wears a cobalt-blue robe over rose-pink sleeves. Two winged, nude babies cling to his outstretched arms, and also look down at Mary. A trio of three blond baby heads float around the white dove, which flies in a starburst of light. Midnight-blue wings frame each baby’s head. The entire group is surrounded by puffy, golden clouds. The landscape beyond the balustrade has lush green trees under a sapphire-blue sky sprinkled with clouds.

Media Options

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The Virgin Mary, kneeling in prayer, is interrupted by the Angel Gabriel, who points upward to a vision of God surrounded by clouds and angels. Between the figures of God and the Virgin is another blaze of light containing the dove of the Holy Spirit.

This is one of a group of relatively small-scale Annunciations by Veronese and his workshop. Much of the composition references an Annunciation that Veronese painted for the Escorial in Madrid. For that important commission for King Philip II of Spain, Veronese strategically drew inspiration from a version painted by Titian a half century earlier as a diplomatic gift to Philip’s mother, the empress Isabella. By drawing a parallel between Veronese’s own version of the Annunciation and that by his recently deceased colleague, he would have been paying a gracious compliment to both Titian and Philip. Then, after meeting the terms of a major foreign commission, it would have been natural for Veronese and his workshop to maximize on his invention by producing smaller versions for the local market.

In the Gallery’s picture, Veronese has added several details traditionally associated with the iconography of the Annunciation, including the view of the Virgin’s bedchamber, on the right, and the crystal carafe, symbolic of her purity, in front of her.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 24

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 98.4 x 75.3 cm (38 3/4 x 29 5/8 in.)
    framed: 123 x 99.1 x 7.3 cm (48 7/16 x 39 x 2 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1959.9.6

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century: The Annunciation, c. 1583/1584

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Victor Amédée, 3rd prince de Carignan [1690-1741], Paris; (his estate sale, Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, 30 July 1742 and days following, unnumbered lots, bought in); (his estate sale, Hôtel de Soissons, Paris, 18 June 1743 and days following, no. 101); purchased by Thibaut for Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti [1717-1776], Paris; (his estate sale, Palais du Temple, Paris, 8 April 1777 and days following, no. 104); purchased by (Jacques Langlier, Paris) for Antoine Poullain [d. 1780], Paris; (Poullain estate sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 15-21 March 1780, 3rd day, no. 4); (Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun, Paris); Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paul de Rigaud, comte de Vaudreuil [1740-1817], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 24-25 November 1784, 2nd day, no. 6); (J.P.B. Le Brun, Paris and London); (Le Brun sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18-19 March 1785, 2nd day, no. 79); Welbore Ellis Agar [1735-1805], London; by inheritance to his illegitimate sons, Welbore Felix Agar [d. 1836] and Sir Emmanuel Felix Agar [1781-1866]; purchased 1806 with the entire Agar collection by Robert Grosvenor, 1st marquess of Westminster [1767-1845], Eaton Hall, Cheshire, England;[1] by inheritance to his son, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd marquess of Westminster [1795-1869], Eaton Hall; by inheritance to his son, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st duke of Westminster [1825-1899], Eaton Hall; by inheritance to his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd duke of Westminster [1879-1953], Eaton Hall; (Westminster sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 4 July 1924, no. 58); (Buttery, London).[2] (Julius Böhler, Munich and Lucerne); sold 17 February 1925 to Julius H. Haass [1856-1931], Detroit; by inheritance to his wife, Lillian Henkel Haass [1879-1960], Detroit, until at least 1949.[3] (Newhouse Galleries, New York). (Frederick Mont, Inc., New York), from at least 1956; sold 14 February 1957 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1959 to NGA.
[1] The details of the ownership by Carignan, Conti, Vaudreuil, and Agar were provided by Burton Fredericksen, then Director of the Getty Provenance Index, in letters of 10 August and 16 December 1987 to Suzannah Fabing (in NGA curatorial files). In the first five sales listed, the painting was paired with a pendant depicting L'Apparition de notre Seigneur à la Magdeleine (or Noli Me Tangere). As pointed out by Fredericksen in a message to Peter Humfrey of 4 February 2009, the two were sold as parts of the same lot at the Carignan, Conti, Poullain, and Vaudreuil sales, while at the Christie’s sale of 1785, the Noli Me Tangere appears as the following lot (no. 80).
The NGA painting is listed in François Basan, ed., Collection de cent-vingt estampes, Paris, 1781, a volume of 120 engravings after paintings that had belonged to the recently deceased “M. Poullain, Receveur Général des Domaines du Roi.” Jean Habert discusses the passage of an Annunciation by Veronese from the Carignan to the Conti and Poullain collections, with further bibliography, without, however, identifying it with the NGA painting. In all these collections the Annunciation was paired with a Noli Me Tangere, identified by Habert with the version in the Musée de Grenoble (inv. MG7); but while the two works are consistent stylistically, the latter work is of a horizontal format (67 x 95 cm), whereas in the sale catalogues they are listed as of identical format and dimensions. (Jean Habert, “Le goût pour la peinture de Véronèse en France à l’époque classique,” in Venise & Paris, 1500-1700: La peinture vénitienne de la Renaissance et sa réception en France, ed. Michel Hochmann, Geneva, 2011: 321.
The Ellis Agar Collection was to be sold at Christie's, London, 2-3 May 1806, and a sale catalogue was produced (the NGA painting was no. 34), but before the auction could take place the complete collection was instead sold to Lord Grosvenor, for 30,000 guineas (George Redford, Art Sales, 1628-1887, 2 vols., London, 1888: 1:95). The bill of sale is preserved at the Grosvenor Estate Office Archive (information kindly provided by Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild, letter of 5 March 2002, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Buttery was likely Ayerst Hooker Buttery (1868-1929), a restorer and dealer. See: https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/directory-of-british-picture-restorers/british-picture-restorers-1600-1950-b/#BU, accessed March 2019.
[3] The original bill of sale is in NGA curatorial files, sent by the Haass's daughter, Constance Haass McMath, with a letter of 12 February 1962 to NGA curator Perry Cott. Mrs. Haass lent the painting to a 1949 exhibition in Detroit.
[4] Betty Mont wrote to Guy Emerson of the Kress Foundation on 5 November 1956 that they had "a lovely 'Annuncation' by Paolo Veronese" in their studio. The invoice from Frederick Mont & Company to the Kress Foundation, for four paintings including the Veronese, is dated 14 February 1957; three payments for the group were completed in September of the same year. (See copies of the letter and invoice in NGA curatorial files and The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2062).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1876

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1876, no. 130.

1903

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1903, no. 52.

1927

  • Fifth Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1927, no. 24.

1929

  • [Loan Exhibition], The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1929.

1939

  • Mostra di Paolo Veronese, Ca' Giustinian, Venice, 1939, no. 86, repro.

1941

  • Masterpieces of Art from European and American Collections. Twenty-second Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1941, no. 63.

1949

  • Masterpieces of Painting from Detroit Private Collections, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1949, no. 35, pl. 4.

Bibliography

1781

  • Basan, François, ed. Collection de cent-vingt estampes, gravées d’après les tableaux & dessins qui composoient le cabinet de M. Poullain. Paris, 1781: 14, pl. 78.

1931

  • Rich, Daniel Catton. “An Unpublished Veronese in Chicago.” Pantheon 7, no. 1 (1931): 20.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 420.

1934

  • Fiocco, Giuseppe. Paolo Veronese. Rome, 1934: 127.

1939

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Mostra di Paolo Veronese. Exh. cat. Ca’ Giustinian, Venice, 1939: 198-199 no. 86.

1948

  • Arslan, Edoardo. “Nota su Veronese e Zelotti.” Belle Arti 1, nos. 5-6 (1948): 236.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:130.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 209, repro.

  • Richardson, E. P., ed. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April-June 1959." The Art Quarterly 22, no. 3 (Autumn 1959): 277.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 126, repro. pl. 118.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 308, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 123, repro.

  • Marini, Remigio. Tutta la pittura di Paolo Veronese. Milan, 1968: 125-126, no. 255.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 40, 305, 647.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 39-40, fig. 73.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 364, repro.

1976

  • Pignatti, Terisio. Veronese. 2 vols. Venice, 1976: 1:162, no. 312.

1977

  • Cocke, Richard. “Review of Veronese, L’Opera Completa, by Terisio Pignatti.” The Burlington Magazine 119 (1977): 787.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:524-525; 2:pl. 365, as Veronese and Studio.

1981

  • Badt, Kurt. Paolo Veronese. Cologne, 1981: 40, 184.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 215, no. 260, color repro.

  • Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Veronese. Milan, 1984: 154, 187.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 422, repro.

1991

  • Pignatti, Terisio, and Filippo Pedrocco. Veronese: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1991: 290, no. 220.

1994

  • Mulcahy, Rosemarie. The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial. Cambridge, 1994: 149.

1995

  • Pignatti, Terisio, and Filippo Pedrocco. Veronese. 2 vols. Milan, 1995: 2:448 no. 343.

2005

  • Huber, Hans Dieter. Paolo Veronese: Kunst als soziales System. Munich, 2005: 459.

Wikidata ID

Q20176789

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