The Annunciation to the Virgin

1450/1460

Belbello da Pavia

Associated Names
Belbello da Pavia

Artist, Lombard, active c. 1430 - c. 1473

The artwork is an illuminated manuscript page with a vertical orientation, featuring a decorated initial "D" near the left center. Within this initial, a scene shows an angel and the Virgin Mary. The angel, on the left, is in light garments and leans toward Mary, who is dressed in blue and sits with a book in her lap. The background is a dark, starry sky. The border has floral patterns in blues, greens, and pinks. Musical notations and Latin text fill the space around the central illustration.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera and gold leaf on vellum

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 58.9 x 42.5 cm (23 3/16 x 16 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1948.11.21

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    NGA Miniatures 1975, no. 20

  • Series Title

    Leaf from a Choir Book (Antiphonary)

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1949

  • Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, organized by the Waters Art Gallery at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 1949, no. 179, repro.

1950

  • Rosenwald Collection: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, NGA, 1950, no. 12, repro.

1953

  • Mediaeval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, Los Angeles County Museum, 1953-1954, no. 104.

  • Medieval and Renaissance Music Manuscripts, Toledo Museum of Art, OH, 1953, no. 66, repro.

1968

  • Good and Bad Angels, University of Notre Dame Art Gallery, IN, 1968, no catalogue.

1971

  • A Selection of X-Xv Century Medieval Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, 1971, no. 35.

1972

  • Mediaeval Manuscripts from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, University of Notre Dame, 1972, no. 23, repro.

1975

  • Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1975, no. 20, repro.

1990

  • Gardens on Paper: Prints and Drawings, 1200-1900, NGA, 1990, no. 11, repro.

2009

  • Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations from the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 2009.

Bibliography

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1975: no. 20.

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, p. 138, fig. 45a.

1990

  • Clayton, Virginia Tuttle. Gardens on Paper: Prints and Drawings, 1200-1900. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1990: 11.

1991

  • Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 70-71, color repro.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 208, color repro.

1999

  • Baroffio, Giacomo, Iter Liturgicum Italicum. Padova (1999): 303

Wikidata ID

Q64537185