The Annunciation, c. 1450/1470

Inscription

center, in block, on banner: ave gracia plena dominus te; below image, in pen and brown ink: Natus ab eterno patre qui prodiit infans abnuit ille nichil nulla petita negat Candida fac igitur tu suffragare rogata daque pias mentes diua maria Vale (Born of the eternal father, he who came to the world as a small child rejects nothing, and he refuses nothing that is asked of him. So grant radiance to the petitioner's requests, support them, and give pious dispositions, divine Maria. Be well.)

[translation from Parshall, Peter, and Rainer Schoch. _Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public._ Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2005, p. 115, note 1.]

Provenance

Barfusserkloster, Freiburg, Switzerland. Lessing J. Rosenwald, Jenkintown, PA; gift 1943 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1941

The First Century of Printmaking 1400-1500, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1941, no. 4, repro.

1947

Six Centuries of Prints, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1947, no cat.

1949

Selection from the Rosenwald Collection, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1949, no cat.

1949

Ten Centuries of Christian Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, WI, 1949, no catalogue.

1951

Fifteenth-century Graphic Art from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1951-1952, no cat.

1953

Masterpieces of Graphic Art from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1953-1954.

1954

Masterpieces from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1954.

1956

Prints, 1400-1800, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1956-1957, no. 1.

1956

Selected Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, City Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 1956.

1959

An Exhibition of Christmas Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1959, no cat.

1959

Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln, 1959, no catalogue.

1961

Christmas Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1961-1962, no cat.

1961

Gothic and Renaissance Prints, Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME, 1961.

1963

Christmas Card Subjects from the Graphic Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1963-1964, no cat.

1965

Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 1965-1966, no. 6, repro.

1968

L'Incisione Europea dal XV al XX Secolo, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy, 1968. no. 3, repro.

1971

Christmas Print Exhibition, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX, 1971-1972, no catalogue.

1971

Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia, Fredericksburg, VA, 1971, no. 5, repro.

1971

Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints from the Rosenwald Collection, Saint John's College, Santa Fe, NM, 1971, no catalogue.

1973

Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints of Northern Europe from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1973, no. 4.

2005

Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public, NGA and Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2005-2006, no. 22b, repro.

Bibliography

1926

Schreiber, Wilhelm Ludwig. Handbuch de Holz- und Metailschnitte des XV Jahrhunderts. 8 vols. Leipzig: Verlag Karl W. Hierseman, 1926-1930.

1965

Field, Richard S. Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. Exh. cat. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1965: no. 6.

2013

Brisman, Shira. "The Image That Wants to Be Read: An Invitation for Interpretation in a Drawing by Albrecht Dürer." Word & Image 29, no. 3 (July/September 2013): 289-290, fig. 11.

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