One of the most celebrated paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection, this depiction of the Annunciation unfolds in a classicizing architectural interior rendered with one-point perspective to create the illusion of depth, a technique achieved in early fifteenth-century Florence. The incised lines visible on the panel's surface are evidence of Botticelli’s working method to create the complex composition. A row of pillars divides the space occupied by the Angel Gabriel from the intimate bed chamber of the Virgin, who kneels in humility as she receives his divine message. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger work. While the identity of the patron is not known, the painting was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Annunciation
Artist:Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) (Italian, Florence 1444/45–1510 Florence)
Date:ca. 1485–92
Medium:Tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions:7 1/2 x 12 3/8 in. (19.1 x 31.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Object Number:1975.1.74
Palazzo Barberini, Rome, likely 1679-at least 1881 and probably 1890; E. Volpi, Florence, as early as 1890-1905; exported from Italy, July 1905 (dated customs stamp on reverse of panel); Oscar Huldschinsky, Berlin, from 1906-May 1928; Huldschinsky sale, Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, May 10–11, 1928, no. 54; bought by Böhler and Steinmeyer at the Hulschinsky sale for Robert Lehman.
J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. London, 1871, p. 350 n. 1.
Ivan Lermolieff [Giovanni Morelli]. Kunstkritische Studien über italienische Malerei. Vol. 1, Die Galerien Borghese und Doria Panfili in Rom. Leipzig, 1890, pp. 106-107.
Hermann Ulmann. Sandro Botticelli. Munich, [1893?], p. 81.
Count Plunkett. Sandro Botticelli. London, 1900, p. 117.
Giovanni Morelli. Italian Painters: Critical Studies of Their Work: The Bourghese and Doria Pamfili Galleries in Rome. Vol. 1, London, 1900, p. 83.
Jacques Mesnil. "Botticelli à Rome." Rivista d'arte 3 (1905), pp. 122-123.
Wilhelm von Bode. "Eine Verkündigung Botticellis in der Sammlung Huldschinsky zu Berlin." Jahrbuch der königlich preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 27 (1906), pp. 247-248.
Herbert P. Horne. Alessandro Filipepi commonly called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence. London, 1908.
Wilhelm Bode. Die Sammlung Oscar Huldschinsky. Frankfurt, 1909, p. 38.
Langton Douglas, ed. A History of Painting in Italy: Umbria, Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth Century.. By Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. Vol. 4, Florentine Masters of the Fifteenth Century. London, 1911, p. 269.
Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein. Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus dem Privatbesitz von Mitgliedern des Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Vereins. Berlin, 1914, p. 9, no. 9.
Wilhelm von Bode. Sandro Botticelli. Berlin, 1921, pp. 158-159.
August Schmarsow. Sandro del Botticello. Dresden, 1923, p. 98f.
Bernard Berenson. "An Annunciation by Botticelli." Art in America 12 (1924), p. 188, fig. 5.
Wilhelm von Bode. Sandro Botticelli. London, 1925, p. 113.
Adolfo Venturi. Botticelli. Rome, 1925, p. 117.
Wilhelm von Bode. Botticelli: des Meisters Werke. Berlin, 1926, pp. 44, 140.
Adolfo Venturi. Botticelli. London, 1927, p. 103.
Max J. Friedländer. "Die Sammlung Oscar Huldschinsky." Der Cicerone 20 (1928), p. 4, fig. on p. 2.
Ernst Friedrich Bange. Die Sammlung Oscar Huldschinsky. Berlin, 1928, p. 31, no. 54.
Yukio Yashiro. Sandro Botticelli and the Florentine Renaissance. Boston , 1929, p. 239.
Lionello Venturi. Pitture italiane in America. Vol. 2, Milan, 1931, Pl. 192.
Raimond van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. Vol. 12, The Hague, 1931, p. 148.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 105.
Lionello Venturi. Italian Paintings in America. Vol. 2, Fifteenth Century Renaissance. New York, 1933, Pl. 245.
Carlo Gamba. Botticelli. Paris, 1937, p. 177.
Jacques Mesnil. Botticelli. Paris, 1938, p. 29.
"Exh. cat." Masterpieces of Art. Exh. cat.1939, no. 17.
William R. Valentiner and Alfred M. Frankfurter. Masterpieces of Art: Exhibition at the New York World's Fair 1939, Official Souvenir Guide and Picture Book. New York, 1939, p. 8, fig. 17.
Paintings and Bronzes from the Collection of Mr. Robert Lehman. Exh. cat., Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Colorado Springs, 1951, Pl. 15
.
Frederick Hartt. Sandro Botticelli (1444/5-1510). New York, 1953, Pl. 29.
Theodore Allen Heinrich. "The Lehman Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12 (April 1954), p. 220, fig. on p. 223.
Charles Sterling, ed. Exposition de la collection Lehman de New York. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1957, p. 1, no. 5.
Roberto Salvini. Tutta la pittura del Botticelli. Vol. 2, Milan, 1958, pp. 23, 49.
Vogue. "The Robert Lehman Collection: The Finest Private Collection in the World." Vogue (1959), p. 83.
Roberto Salvini. Encyclopedia of World Art. Vol. 2, New York, 1960, p. 584, pl. 332.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places. London, 1963, p. 37.
Roberto Salvini. All the Paintings of Botticelli. Vol. 3, New York, 1965, pp. 110, 136, pl. 56.
Gabriele Mandel inThe Complete Paintings of Botticelli. New York, 1967, no. 121.
Gabriele Mandel. L'opera completa del Botticelli. Milan, 1967, no. 121.
Roberta Jeanne Marie Olson. "Studies in the Later Works of Sandro Botticelli." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1975, pp. 20, 60, 402-404, 432, 444-445.
George Szabó. The Robert Lehman Collection: A Guide. New York, 1975, pp. 53-54, pl. 36.
Martin Kemp. "Botticelli's Glasgow 'Annunciation': Patterns of Instability." Burlington Magazine 119 (March 1977), pp. 181-184.
Susan Legouix. Botticelli. London, 1977, p. 77, no. 56.
Ronald W. Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli. Vol. 1, Berkeley, 1978, p. 116, pl. 39.
Ronald W. Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli. Vol. 2, Berkeley, 1978, pp. 78-80, cat. no. B69.
John D. Biggers. "When Does Life Begin?" The Sciences 21 (1981), Fig. on p. 12.
Keith Christiansen. "Early Renaissance Narrative Painting in Italy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (Fall 1983), pp. 9-12, fig. 7.
George Szabo. Masterpieces of Italian Drawing in the Robert Lehman Collection. New York, 1983, p. 12, fig. 10.
John Pope-Hennessy assisted by Laurence B. Kanter inThe Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 1, Italian Paintings. New York, 1987, pp. 188-191, no. 80.
Virginia Jackson. Art Museums of the World: Norway-Zaire. Vol. 2, Westport, CT, 1987, p. 1274.
Pamela Askew. Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin. Princeton, 1990, p. 111, fig. 47.
Thomas Hoving. Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 42.
Philippe de Montebello. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1994, p. 351.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 24.
Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 104-105.
Carla Friedericke Heussler. Die Trinität von Sandro Botticelli in den Londoner Courtauld Institute Galleries: eine Einordnung in das Gesamtwerk. Frankfurt, 1997, p. 88, pl. 69.
Jean Sorabella. "The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting ." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York, 2008.
"Painting the Life of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Italy." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York , 2008.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi): The Annunciation (1975.1.74)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York, 2008.
Clara Granzotto, fellow in the Department of Scientific Research, imagines what it would be like to interview artist Sandro Botticelli about The Annunciation and discover all of the artist's secrets.
Osservanza Master (Italian, Siena, active second quarter 15th century)
ca. 1435
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