DescriptionThis jewel-like representation of the Annunciation is set in an architectural interior constructed according to a rigorous system of one-point perspective. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a private devotional image, not as part of a larger structure. While the identity of the patron is not known, the work was in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the seventeenth century. One of the most celebrated masterpieces in the Robert Lehman Collection, the Annunciation was given by Lehman to his father Philip as a birthday gift, and was a favorite of both men.

ProvenancePalazzo Barberini, Rome; E. Volpi, Florence; exported from Italy, July 1905 (dated customs stamp on reverse of panel); Oscar Huldschinsky, Berlin, from 1906; Huldschinsky sale, Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, May 10–11, 1928, no. 54; bought by Böhler and Steinmeyer for Robert Lehman, New York