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Overview

Giovanni di Paolo's Annunciation is believed to be one of five predella panels that belonged to the lower portion of a large, as yet unidentified, Sienese altarpiece. The central area of the panel shows the most important part of the painted narrative -- the Archangel Gabriel announcing the impending birth of the Christ Child to the Virgin Mary. Outside her elegant Italian Gothic house, a lush garden reflects the spring season of the Annunciation. The fertile landscape also provides an appropriate setting for the secondary representation at the left -- Adam and Eve's dramatic expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Giovanni used the figure of God the Father, who occupies the celestial realm in the upper left corner, to link the Expulsion to the Annunciation. God both points out the exiled couple's disgrace and looks ahead toward the Annunciation in anticipation of divine redemption. Finally, at the right, Joseph warms his hands at a fireplace, symbolic of Jesus' future birth in the winter.

Disregarding naturalistic detail in favor of flat, decorative pattern, Giovanni was nevertheless aware of current Renaissance experiments in linear perspective, as exemplified by the receding floor tiles in both the central loggia and Joseph's cubicle. The artist's decision, however, not to follow realistic spatial and scale relationships completely, and his use of willowy, elegantly dressed figures, place him firmly within the medieval pictorial tradition, now reappearing as the International Style.

Provenance

Sir William John Farrer, London, by 1866;[1] purchased in or before 1868 by Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19 April 1902, no. 73); purchased by (Charles Fairfax Murray [1849-1919], London and Florence) for Robert Henry [1850-1929] and Evelyn Holford [1856-1943] Benson, London and Buckhurst Park, Sussex;[3] sold 1927 with the Benson collection to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[4] sold May 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] The panel is cited under this location by Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, from the II to the XVI Century, 3 vols., London, 1864-1866: 3:80 n. 6. See also Tancred Borenius, Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16 South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex Collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson, London, 1914: 13. Farrer is recorded by Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols., London, 1854: 2:338, among other "picture dealers in London." Waagen does not, however, mention NGA 1939.1.223.

[2] See J.C. Robinson, Memoranda on Fifty Pictures, London, 1868: 2.

[3] See Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:224. It is known that Murray acted frequently as agent for Robert H. Benson; this must have been the case also at the Robinson sale. In fact, Benson's notes on the painting's history read: "Bought at Christie's after a contest with G. Salting" (transcript provided in 1976 by his grandson, Peter Wake, and in NGA curatorial files). "G. Salting" was George Salting, owner of another well-known collection of early Italian paintings in London.

[4] See Robert Langton Douglas, "I dipinti senesi della collezione Benson passati da Londra in America." Rassegna d'Arte Senese e del Costume 1/5, no. 3 (May-June 1927): 103, and also Edward Fowles, Memories of Duveen Brothers, London, 1976: 183.

[5] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of thirteen paintings and one sculpture, including NGA 1939.1.223, is dated 18 May 1936; the provenance is given as "Benson Coll'n" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2064.

Exhibition History
1904
Exhibition of Pictures of the School of Siena, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1904, no. 30, as The Annunciation.
1910
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1910, no. 1, as The Annunciation.
1927
Loan Exhibition of the Benson Collection of Old Italian Masters, City Art Gallery, Manchester, 1927, no. 100.
Bibliography
1914
Benson, Robert Henry. Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16 South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex. London, privately printed, 1914: no. 9.
1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 37, repro.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 84, no. 334.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 118.
1944
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 24, repro.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 41, repro.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 29-30, repro. 22.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 26, color repro.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 14, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 53, fig 19, pl. 153.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 44, repro.
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: 16, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 299, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 59.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:14, color repro.
1966
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 148, fig. 402, 404.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 51, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 154, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:223-224; 2:pl. 151.
1979
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part I." Apollo 109 (April 1979): 304 [58] fig. 18.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 80, no. 31, color repro., as by Giovanni di Paolo
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 178, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 14, repro.
1997
Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. "Christ's Birth Gave Birth to Astounding Images: Gallery Glitters with holy Masterpieces." Washington Times (December 21, 1997): D5, repro.
1998
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Virgin/Virginity." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Chicago, 1998: 2:905.
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: 325-332, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: inside front flap, 18, no. 12, color repros.
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