The Artist: A successor of Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus, and a contemporary of Gerard David, Hans Memling was among the most important artists of fifteenth-century Bruges. Although he spent the majority of his career in that thriving city, he was born around 1435–40 in the German town of Klein-Krotzenburg near Seligenstadt, south-east of Frankfurt, Germany. Memling probably trained as a painter in that region before heading out to gain further practical experience, perhaps first in Cologne and then in Brussels around 1459–60, where he most likely worked as a journeyman assistant in Rogier van der Weyden’s workshop. This relationship is supported by Giorgio Vasari, who mentions Memling as a pupil of Rogier of Brussels (Rogier van der Weyden) in his famous Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, first published in 1550. In addition, there is ample evidence that Memling assimilated Rogier’s compositions, figure motifs, and stylistic traits, even including the salient characteristics of his underdrawings, for his early paintings. Rogier’s Durán Madonna (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid), Last Judgment Altarpiece (Hôtel Dieu, Beaune), Saint Columba Altarpiece (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), and Bladelin Altarpiece (Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) were particularly influential in this regard.

Memling was one of the most prolific painters of his day—around one hundred works survive—yet the details about his life remain sketchy. He arrived in Bruges on January 30, 1465, and registered with the painters’ corporation by the end of the month in order to take up his trade there.[1] Corporation records of 1480 and 1483–84 also note that Memling took on two apprentices, Hannekin Verhanneman and Passchier van der Meersch, at a particularly busy time of Memling’s career. At the outset of his time in Bruges, Memling received commissions from important church administrators such as Ferry de Clugny and Jan Crabbe, and he was much sought after by the growing community of foreign businessmen in Bruges. Among others, for Angelo Tani, the representative of the Medici bank in Bruges, Memling produced the monumental Last Judgment Triptych (Muzeum Narodowe, Gdańsk), and for Tommaso Portinari (Tani’s successor), Scenes from the Passion of Christ (Galleria Sabauda, Turin) and The Met’s Portraits of Tommaso Portinari and Maria Baroncelli (14.40.626–27). Important local commissions included for the Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges the magisterial Saint John Altarpiece, as well as the Triptych of Jan Floreins and the Triptych of Adriaan Reins, ordered by two of the brothers of the hospital order. Private patrons, such as Willem Moreel (Moreel Triptych) and Maarten van Nieuwenhove (Diptych of Marteen van Nieuwenhove), ordered significant works in 1484 and 1487 respectively, indicating Memling’s continuing prominence as a painter even toward the end of his career. The painter’s enduring popularity throughout the ages is due to the emotional appeal of his sweet Virgin and Child paintings (see for example, 14.40.634 and 32.100.59) and the extraordinary verisimilitude of his portraits (see 14.40.626–27, 1975.1.112, and 14.40.648), the latter of which comprise nearly a third of his oeuvre.[2]

The Subject of the Painting: Among the most popular themes of devotional painting, this Annunciation takes place, as was customary in fifteenth-century Netherlandish representations, in a domestic interior replete with symbolic meaning. The Virgin kneels at her prie-dieu where she has been reading from a breviary[3] illuminated by a lit wax-impregnated ball of flax. Charles Minott interpreted this reference to Isaiah 42:1–4, “the smoking flax shall he not quench,” as a metaphor for Christ’s Incarnation.[4] Mary is distracted from her devotions by the arrival of Gabriel, who is dressed in an amice, alb, and dalmatic, the liturgical vestments of a deacon worn when assisting a priest during the celebration of Holy Communion.[5] Reinforcing the message of Christ’s sacrifice for and redemption of humankind is the cross atop the pearl and gem-studded diadem worn by Gabriel and his peacock-feathered wings, a reference to everlasting life in Paradise.[6] Mary's chastity is denoted by the enclosed garden in the background and by the transparent water carafe (through which light passes uncorrupted) on the shelf above the door; her purity is represented by the lilies in the golden pitcher.

The Patron and Commission: The two joined keys—clés unis in French—in the coat of arms in the stained-glass window and on the carpet below identify the patron as a member of the Burgundian Clugny family, of whom Guillaume (d. 1480) and Ferry (1410–1483) were the most prominent members. The commission for the painting most likely came from Ferry, a distinguished patron of the arts, an eminent jurist, and a member of the Grand Council of the Duke of Burgundy. He also held important ecclesiastical positions. In 1465, as a canon of the cathedral of Saint-Lazare at Autun and episcopal official under Bishop Rolin, Ferry founded the Chapelle Dorée as his sepulchral chapel. Subsequently, he was named chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece by Charles the Bold in 1473 and a year later was consecrated Bishop of Tournai. The Met’s painting must predate 1477, the year in which Louis XI of France bestowed upon Ferry de Clugny the bishopric of Poitiers, causing the family coat of arms to be altered to include turreted towers and the golden fleur-de-lis of Tournai.[7]

Given that Ferry de Clugny founded the Chapelle Dorée in 1465, a tantalizing notion is that this monumental Annunciation was commissioned to adorn it, along with an impressive cycle of wall paintings, and a series of eight tapestries of Virtuous Women (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).[8] This proposal is supported by circumstantial evidence in the records detailing the foundation of the chapel and the provisions made for devotions there. The chapel was to have served as Ferry de Clugny’s burial site, although, due to his unexpected death in Rome in 1483, Pope Sixtus IV (who had made Ferry cardinal priest of San Vitale in Rome on May 15, 1480) directed that he be buried in the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo instead. Even though Ferry was not ultimately buried in the Chapelle Dorée, his liturgical wishes were still respected, as is evidenced by an account in an early sixteenth-century Autun capitular register. And, as Melena Hope has shown, there is compelling evidence that The Met's Annunciation provided a visual counterpart for the devotional practices there.[9]

The Chapelle Dorée occupied a prestigious location in the south-western aisle, next to the cathedral’s transept and just to the right of the high altar in the church of Saint-Lazare. The decoration of the chapel with murals and an altarpiece must post-date its foundation on November 8, 1465.[10] The Chapelle Dorée was devoted to the Virgin and to the Holy Trinity, although due to the current ruinous state of the wall paintings there, this is not readily apparent. However, specific provisions for the devotional practices stipulated to take place there more directly clarify Ferry’s intention: of the four weekly masses to be said, two were to be requiems on Wednesday and Friday, one mass of the Holy Trinity on Thursday, and one mass of the most blessed Virgin on Saturday. Furthermore, Marian chants and prayers were to be sung in the chapel before the introit of Ferry’s anniversary mass in the nave of the cathedral. The provisions stipulated that the Inviolata be chanted in its entirety with the accompanying versicle Post partem.[11] The praise of the inviolate state of the Virgin, both before and after the birth of Christ, relates specifically to the Virgin of the Annunciation. But even more pertinent to The Met's Annunciation is the Deus qui de beate Marie prayer that the chapter was instructed to recite over the tomb of Ferry de Clugny: O God, who desired your Word to take flesh from the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary when the angel announced it, grant to your supplicants that we who truly believe her to be the Mother of God may be helped in your sight by her intercessions.[12] Clearly, this prayer references the Virgin’s Annunciation, and the particular prayers to be said or sung were found in breviaries, such as the one that lies open on the Virgin’s prie-dieu in the painting.

Furthermore, de Vaivre has drawn attention to the likely relevance of a collection of old notes compiled in the eighteenth century and conserved in the Collection Bourgogne in the Department of Manuscripts in the Bibliothèque National de France. The following is an entry concerning Ferry de Clugny:

Il a fait faire en l’église de Monsieur saint Ladre d’Ostun une très riche et belle chapelle bien peinturée et ung tableau plus que très beaul. (He had made in the church of my Lord Saint Lazare at Autun a very rich and beautiful chapel well painted and a panel painting more than very beautiful.)[13]

It is highly probable that this “more than very beautiful” painting is The Met's Annunciation, commissioned for the foundation of an oratory which Ferry de Clugny had in mind, the Duke of Burgundy having proposed it to him since 1459, for the bishopric of Autun or of Macon.

Unusually large for an early Netherlandish painting, this Annunciation has been thought to have been part of a larger ensemble, as the left wing of a monumental triptych.[14] Support for this theory takes into consideration the tall, narrow shape of the panel and the apparent diagonal thrust of the composition, from lower left to upper right, which is loosely based on the left wing of the Saint Columba Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (between about 1450–56, Alte Pinakothek, Munich; see fig. 1 above). However, given the fact that a central panel and right wing of the purported triptych have never been identified, and that the documentation of the decoration of the Chapelle Dorée mentions only one painting, not a triptych, it seems more likely that The Met's Annunciation existed as an independent work, not an element of a larger ensemble. In any event, such a monumental triptych would probably have been too large for the Saint-Lazare Chapelle Dorée. An alternative explanation for the strong diagonal thrust of the composition could be an accommodation to the viewer entering the chapel, if the painting was originally installed on the left wall.

The Attribution: Due to the compositional and stylistic connections between the New York Annunciation and the left wing of Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint Columba Altarpiece (fig. 1), The Met’s painting was designated a late work by Rogier when it entered the Museum’s collections in 1917. But early on Erwin Panofsky, followed since by other scholars, disputed that attribution, proposing instead the authorship of the young Hans Memling.[15] This attribution depends upon the increasingly widely accepted theory that Hans Memling worked as a journeyman in Rogier’s Brussels workshop prior to moving after Rogier’s death in 1464 to Bruges, where he purchased his citizenship in 1465 and established his own workshop there.[16]

Among Memling’s earliest and most Rogerian works is the Virgin and Child of about 1467 (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels; fig. 2) to which one can compare the Virgin in The Met's Annunciation. What Cyriel Stroo and Pascal Syfer-d’Olne have noted about the Brussels painting in comparing it to Rogier’s work, also applies to the Virgin of the New York Annunciation: “In addition to the obvious typological similarities, there are also many stylistic correspondences, for example, in the finely chiseled physiognomy, the linear composition, and the Virgin’s delicate, stylized gestures.”[17] The early dating of the Brussels Virgin and Child, they continue, “could explain the particularly composite aspect of the style, which is fairly linear and graphic.”[18] These same observations can be made about The Met's Annunciation Virgin, which shares with the Brussels Virgin a triangular-shaped head with a long broad forehead with accented temples, flat cheekbones, and sharply outlined facial features, especially the eyes with their sharply-delineated lowered lids, the long, thin nose, and the cupid’s-bow mouth. In addition, the long flowing hair of the Virgin is painted similarly in each with curly brown locks, boldly highlighted with golden parallel strokes on the peaks of the rigid curls. The hands of the Virgin in the Brussels painting find a close parallel to the right hand of Gabriel in the New York Annunciation where the long, thin thumb is nearly at a right angle to the rest of the hand, and the knuckles of the elegantly articulated fingers are equally finely drawn.

In addition to the characteristics of the painted surface are the similarities found in the preliminary underdrawing stage—both in terms of the stylistic comparisons of The Met's Annunciation with Rogier van der Weyden‘s works and also with other accepted early works by Memling (fig. 3). In his paintings of around 1465–70, Memling followed Rogier's characteristic broad layout of the composition using a brush or pen and ink, only later adopting a dry medium and a much looser sketch for his underdrawings sometime after he settled in Bruges (see 14.40.634).[19] Unmistakably similar to Rogier’s underdrawing style in brush, as in the Virgin of the Middelburg Altarpiece (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie; fig. 4), is Memling’s use of long, sharply-angled contour lines for drapery folds with numerous parallel hatching strokes that define the volume and shading of forms. As one might expect from the journeyman Memling, assimilating underdrawing characteristics from the master of the workshop, his underdrawings at this stage appear more carefully delineated and meticulously drawn than Rogier’s looser, more spontaneous, and more rapidly working brush. This observation here and with other early Memling paintings—of the proximity of Memling’s underdrawing style and technique to that of Rogier—is the chief argument that Memling was actually in Rogier’s workshop, observing and following his underdrawing characteristics and idiosyncrasies first-hand during the painting process, rather than copying motifs from workshop patterns that were circulating rather widely.

Several Rogerian workshop drawings related to the composition and figural motifs of The Met's Annunciation have survived that attest to the wide popularity of this subject.[20] Workshop drawings likely precede such meticulously rendered underdrawings in Memling’s paintings of this period, for there are extremely few modifications in the underdrawing stage or from the underdrawing to the painted layers. One of the few alterations is the change from a candlestick above the Virgin’s devotional book in the underdrawing to a coiled wax taper held in her left hand in the painted version (fig. 3).

Comparisons with Memling’s other early works, namely the Virgin and Child with Musical Angels of about 1465–70 (Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum),[21] the Last Judgment Triptych (Muzeum Narodowe, Gdańsk),[22] and the Annunciation outside wings of the Jan Crabbe Triptych (Bruges, Groeningemuseum),[23] all reveal the same stylistic features of the underdrawing stage as can be found in the New York Annunciation: a fluid drawing in brush and black pigment or ink, with long hook-ended strokes for the contour lines of drapery folds, and even, parallel hatching for the description of three-dimensional form and the system of lighting.

Whether The Met's Annunciation was commissioned by Ferry de Clugny initially from Rogier van der Weyden, who died before he could undertake it, or directly from Hans Memling, who apparently carried out the commission, cannot be determined. However, a relationship between Memling and Ferry de Clugny most certainly existed in the years following its execution. Appointed Bishop of Tournai in 1473, Ferry visited Bruges off and on between 1474 and 1476, finally settling there in 1477, when Tournai was occupied by the French. Sint-Janshospitaal was under the direct authority of the Bishop of Tournai, and as Max Martens has argued, Ferry most likely was influential in the commission of the monumental Saint John Altarpiece from Memling in 1479.[24]

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2017

[1] Noël Geirnaert, “Hans Memling, Lid van het Schildersmambacht en Poorter van Brugge, 1465,” in Noël Geirnaert, Bedenkingen vanuit het Stadsarchief van Brugge, 2017, n.p.
[2] For further on Memling’s biography, see De Vos 1994 and Lane 2009.
[3] My thanks to Beth Morrison, Thomas Kren, and Roger Wieck for identifying the type of devotional book as a breviary (emails to Maryan Ainsworth, June 8–9, 2017, European Paintings archive files).
[4] See Minott 1969. The entire Isaiah passage, Minott noted, is the first lesson to be read at matins on Tuesday of the fourth week in Advent.
[5] See McNamee 1972.
[6] The peacock is also more specifically known as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and the rewards of Paradise. In addition, there is the “Aristotelean notion that peacock flesh was incorruptible, and it thereby became a symbol of Christ’s resurrection and of the promise of immortality for Christians.” See Hope B. Werness, Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art, New York and London, 2003, p. 320.
[7] See Dykmans 1983.
[8] See Hope 2011, p. 114.
[9] See Hope 2011, p. 128.
[10] This date is not contradicted by the dendrochronological findings concerning the four oak boards that comprise the panel (see Technical Notes). Peter Klein, University of Hamburg, dendrochronology report of May 5, 2016 (European Paintings archive files).
[11] As in Hope 2011, p. 127: Inviolate, spotless and pure art thou, O Mary, who was made the radiant gate of Heaven. O dearest kind mother of Christ, receive the devout proclamations of our praises. Our faithful hearts and mouths now ask of thee that our souls and bodies may be pure. By your sweet-sounding prayers, grant us pardon forever. O gracious Lady, O Queen, O Mary, who alone has remained inviolate. After giving birth, you remained inviolately a virgin.
[12] See Hope 2011, p. 127.
[13] See Vaivre 2008.
[14] See Sprinson de Jésus 1998.
[15] See Panofsky 1953; Davies 1972; Ainsworth 1994 and 2016; Faries 1997 and 2001; Borchert 2005, 2014, and 2016; LeZotte 2008; Marciari 2016. Sprinson de Jésus 1998 took a more cautionary approach.
[16] For a dissenting voice on Memling in Rogier’s Brussels workshop, see Lane 2009.
[17] Cyriel Stroo, Pascale Syfer-d’Olne, Anne Dubois, and Roel Slachmuylders, The Flemish Primitives, II, The Dirk Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, and Hugo van der Goes Groups, Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, 1999, p. 176.
[18] Ibid., p. 177.
[19] See Ainsworth 1994.
[20] See Micheline Sonkes, Les Primitifs flamands III. Contributions à l’Étude des Primitifs Flamands, Dessins du XVe Siècle: Groupe Van der Weyden, Brussels, 1969, pp. 39–45, pl. VI, VII.
[21] See the discussion of Molly Faries’s findings concerning the underdrawing of the Madonna and Child Enthroned in Burton L. Dunbar, The Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, German and Netherlandish Paintings 1450–1600, Kansas City, 2005, pp. 150–52, 156–60, figs. 10b, 10k.
[22] See Faries 1997.
[23] See Ainsworth 1994 and 2016.
[24] See Borchert 2016 and Maximiliaan P. J. Martens, “Patronage and Politics: Hans Memling’s Saint John Altarpiece and the Process of Burgundization,” in Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture: Colloque X, 1993, Leuven, 1995, pp. 169–76.

Support: The large wood panel support is comprised of four narrow planks of wood with the grain oriented vertically. Dendrochronological analysis by Dr. Peter Klein identified the wood as oak from the Baltic/Polish region.[1] Two of the boards came from the same tree. According to Dr. Klein’s calculations, an earliest creation date for the painting is possible from 1450 with a more plausible creation date of 1456 or later. X-radiography revealed wooden dowels between the boards, three aligned sets spaced fairly evenly along the joins. At some point prior to entering the Museum’s collection the painting was thinned to a mere 2 mm thickness and cradled.

Preparation: The entire panel was prepared with an initial layer of chalk-glue ground.[2] Examination with infrared reflectography (IRR) revealed an extensive, fully developed underdrawing (see fig. 3 above). It appears that a liquid medium was applied with both a brush and a pen. In a few locations, evidence of a split nib can be seen at the trailing ends of the drawn lines, see for example the central column of the window and the pillow behind Gabriel.

The style and execution of the underdrawing, characterized by angular, schematic contours with lively hatching to suggest volume, are typical of Memling's earliest works of about 1465 to 1470. Variations in line together with the sheer size of the composition, may be evidence of the artist completing the underdrawing in more than one session. Gabriel’s facial features were worked out with sketchy, somewhat searching lines, and nearly circular notations for the eye sockets. The drawing in Mary’s face, by contrast, appears to have been more premeditated. Some elements were underdrawn but eliminated in the painted stage, including a page of the prayer book drawn raised, as if caught mid-turn, and a tall candlestick on the prie-dieu.

A pale pink priming layer was applied on top of the underdrawing, as made visible in cross-sectional samples. This pale pink layer is mainly composed of lead white, with tiny amounts of what appears to be black, vermilion, and azurite particles mixed in. To construct the checkerboard perspective of the tiled floor, incised lines were scored into the light pink-tinted priming, but only in the central portion of the painting. The lack of an incised grid to the left of Gabriel and in front of the carpet may explain why the overall perspective of the floor is slightly off-kilter.

The artist generally followed the underdrawn design in paint, with the exception of a few minor changes. The position of Mary’s mouth and eyes was raised in the final painted state and the neckline of her dress was altered, while the final fold at the right end of the carpet was adjusted. The front edge of the collar of Gabriel’s chasuble was drawn further forward, covering more of the alb. In the gathered bed curtain, the folds at the bottom of the bundle were drawn with a few sketchy vertical lines but painted with a more complicated arrangement of folds. Finally, the banner fluttering from Gabriel’s cross was originally smaller and higher; the size and placement were changed after the details of the shutter behind were painted, requiring the lower fork of the banner to be painted over the already-completed shutter.

Paint Layers: One of the highlights of The Annunciation is the artist's virtuosity in painting a light reflecting off varied materials. Gabriel's maroon and gold dalmatic displays exceptional artistic skill in the rendering of the pearls and embroidery. The manner in which the gold threads catch and reflect the light across the folded material is achieved with a deft combination of brown and yellow paints. Using a similar combination of pigments, the vessel holding the lilies in the bottom right corner presents a convincing illusion of gold. The partially full glass on the ledge high in the left corner is impressive in its verisimilitude.

The faces of the figures appear to have been painted in a nearly identical manner, using smooth transitions between darks and lights, with blended pink accents on the cheeks and chins while exploiting variations in the amount of lead white to distinguish Mary’s flesh tones from Gabriel’s. The bone structure is barely apparent beneath the softly rounded flesh. The narrow eyes with their heavy, crescent-shaped lids display the same dark line in the crease of the upper eyelid, accentuated by an adjacent highlight. The pursed lips use an opaque crimson for the warm blush of color. The hands as well as the faces are painted in a manner that maintains ties to drawing through the linear emphasis of wrinkles and some contours.

In order to achieve the rich blue of the Virgin's mantle, the artist layered two blue pigments. A robust foundation of two layers containing azurite mixed with a little lead white were applied first over the sealed ground preparation—a finely divided azurite was used for the layer directly over the ground and more coarsely ground azurite in the layer above it. Over the azurite base, there are two thin layers containing ultramarine blue; these two layers are separated by an organic, non-pigmented layer.[3] Ultramarine, with its richly saturated color, is a very costly pigment that must be applied in large amounts in order to obtain good coverage. By layering ultramarine on top of less expensive azurite, the painter could reduce costs yet still achieve a vivid blue color. The blue passage has unfortunately suffered from physical degradation of the ultramarine pigment and damage incurred from past cleanings; however, careful retouching has helped redress these issues.

Karen Thomas 2010; updated by Sophie Scully 2017

[1] Wood identification and dendrochronological analysis completed by Dr. Peter Klein, Universität Hamburg, dated May 4, 2015. The report can be found in the Paintings Conservation department files. The youngest heartwood ring was formed out in the year 1439. Regarding the sapwood statistic of Eastern Europe an earliest felling date can be derived for the year 1448, more plausible is a felling date between 1452..1454….1458 + x. With a minimum of two years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from 1450 upward. Under the assumption of a median of fifteen sapwood rings and two years for seasoning, as probably usual in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a creation is plausible from 1456 upward.
[2] The calcium carbonate ground was identified using Raman spectroscopy by Dr. Silvia A. Centeno, Research Scientist.
[3] Pigments identified using Raman spectroscopy and SEM-EDS by Dr. Silvia A. Centeno and Mark T. Wypyski.

?Chapelle Dorée, Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d'Autun (after 1465; probably commissioned by Ferry de Clugny); Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place, Battle, Sussex (probably purchased by him; until d. 1878); his son, Bertram Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place (1878–1903; sold to Colnaghi); [Colnaghi, London, from 1903]; Rodolphe Kann, Paris (until d. 1905; his estate, 1905–7; cat., 1907, vol. 2, no. 108; sold to Duveen); [Duveen, Paris and New York, 1907; sold for £28,000 to Morgan]; J. Pierpont Morgan, New York (1907–d. 1913; his estate, 1913–17)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 10.

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.

W. H. James Weale. "The Annunciation by Roger de la Pasture." Burlington Magazine 7 (April–September 1905), p. 141, pl. 1, ascribes this painting to Rogier's "best period"; identifies the arms in the window and carpet as those of the Burgundian family of Clugny and suggests the painting was made for either Ferry de Clugny, consecrated bishop of Tournai in 1474 and made Cardinal in 1480, or for his brother William, translated from the see of Térouanne to that of Poitiers in 1479; considers Ferry the more likely candidate as he was known to have commissioned other works of art; notes that The Met's composition bears considerable resemblance to Rogier's Annunciation in the Columba Altarpiece in the Munich Gallery [Alte Pinakothek]; states that he first saw this painting in May of 1878 in the collection of the Earl of Ashburnham at Ashburnham Place.

Catalogue of the Rodolphe Kann Collection: Pictures. Paris, 1907, vol. 1, pp. xx, xxi; vol. 2, p. 13, no. 108, ill., calls it an important work by Rogier, bearing the arms of Ferry de Clugny, and one of Rodolph Kann's last acquisitions.

Wilhelm Bode. "Der Verkauf der Sammlung Rudolf Kann in Paris nach Amerika." Die Kunst für Alle 23 (1907–8), pp. 20–22.

Marcel Nicolle. "La Collection Rodolphe Kann." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 23 (January–June 1908), p. 192, questions the attribution to Rogier.

C. J. Holmes. "Recent Acquisitions by Mrs. C. P. Huntington from the Kann Collection." Burlington Magazine 12 (January 1908), p. 205.

W. H. James Weale. "The Risen Saviour Appearing to His Mother: A Masterpiece by Roger de la Pasture." Burlington Magazine 16 (October 1909), p. 160.

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "The Annunciation by Roger van der Weyden, a Recent Loan." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 6 (October 1911), pp. 194–95, as a late work of Rogier's.

Friedrich Winkler. Der Meister von Flémalle und Rogier van der Weyden. Strasbourg, 1913, pp. 70, 135, calls it dependent on Rogier, from his circle; mentions a pen drawing after the figure of Mary that he saw in Weimar.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, p. 33, as a large and somewhat empty Annunciation from Rogier's last years.

F. M. "Ecclesiastical Vestments in the Museum Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (May 1918), p. 114.

Max J. Friedländer. "The Pictures of Rogier van der Weyden in America." Art in America 9 (1921), pp. 66, 69, fig. 5, as a work of Rogier's later years when his style approached that of Memling; finds the face of the Virgin especially reminiscent of Memling.

Willy Burger. Roger van der Weyden. Leipzig, 1923, p. 66, considers it the work of a pupil of Rogier who was also influenced by Dieric Bouts.

Friedrich Winkler. Die altniederländische Malerei: Die Malerei in Belgien und Holland von 1400–1600. Berlin, 1924, p. 370, as "Brussels school"; observes that its austere spirit makes attribution to Rogier's workshop uncertain.

G. Hulin de Loo. "Diptychs by Rogier van der Weyden—II." Burlington Magazine 44 (April 1924), p. 180.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 2, Rogier van der Weyden und der Meister von Flémalle. Berlin, 1924, pp. 31, 106, no. 48, pl. 48, observes that if our impression of Rogier's style toward the end of his career is correct, then this Annunciation must be one of his latest works.

[Hippolyte] Fierens-Gevaert. Histoire de la peinture flamande des origines à la fin du XVe siècle. Vol. 2, Les continuateurs des Van Eyck. Paris, 1928, pp. 70, 72, as by Rogier; dates it about 1460.

Georges Hulin de Loo. "Hans Memling in Rogier van der Weyden's Studio." Burlington Magazine 52 (April 1928), p. 171, mentions it as late work by Rogier.

Malcolm Vaughan. "Rogier van der Weydens in America." International Studio 90 (July 1928), pp. 47–48, ill., as the largest and possibly the latest Rogier in America.

Franz Dülberg. Niederländische Malerei der Spätgotik und Renaissance. Potsdam, 1929, p. 60, as a late work by Rogier, a model for the formality and courtliness of later painters like Memling and Gerard David.

Jules Destrée. Roger de la Pasture—van der Weyden. Paris, 1930, vol. 1, p. 168; vol. 2, pl. 113, attributes it to Rogier.

Paul Rolland. Les primitifs Tournaisiens, peintres & sculpteurs. Brussels, 1932, p. 44, calls the style "rogérien," mentioning it with works by later followers of Rogier, and emphasizing that Ferry de Clugny was not made Bishop of Tournai until 1474 [i.e. 10 years after Rogier's death].

Otto Pächt. "Gestaltungsprinzipien der westlichen Malerei des 15. Jahrhunderts." Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen 2 (1933), p. 86, ascribes it to Rogier and dates it about thirty years after the Merode Altarpiece (The Met, 56.70a–c).

David M. Robb. "The Iconography of the Annunciation in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries." Art Bulletin 18 (December 1936), pp. 511–12 n. 86, as having "a certain morphological relationship" to Rogier's oeuvre, but hardly painted by him; notes that "the type of the Virgin is derived from Rogier's latest style, the angel is much closer to his earlier manner, archaic in both type and pose"; adds that "the austere sweetness so characteristic of the figures in Roger's last works has been sacrificed to blank symmetry of feature . . . the types, particularly that of the Virgin, are very close to Memling's".

Alan Burroughs. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938, p. 266, dates it to the 1450s, noting that "one assistant of Rogier copied the design with small changes for one of the wings of the Columba altar [Alte Pinakothek, Munich]"; notes that "the Virgin's head was revised in old times, which leads one to believe that this picture, like the 'St. Luke' in Boston [Museum of Fine Arts] is the original of similar designs".

Wolfgang Schöne. Dieric Bouts und seine Schule. Berlin, 1938, p. 62, no. 39, attributes it to Rogier although he has not seen the original.

Erich Fidder. Von der Form Roger van der Weydens. [Köslin, Germany], 1938, pp. 38, 45, 95–97.

Erwin Panofsky. Letter to Margaretta Salinger. April 2, 1940, refers to several related Annunciations in which the angel wears a stole and not a "pluviale," illustrated in Schöne 1938 as by "Albrecht, etc." after a lost composition by Dieric Bouts, including the Ehningen altarpiece in Stuttgart; observes that the dating for the latter, 1473–76, fits in well with Ferry de Clugny's consecration as bishop in 1474; is convinced that our Annunciation is not by Rogier.

Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, unpaginated, no. 174, ill., as by Rogier, painted about 1460–64.

Harry B. Wehle and Margaretta Salinger. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings. New York, 1947, pp. 38–40, ill., consider reasonable Friedländer's (1916) attribution of this painting to Rogier's late period.

Ernest Lotthé. La pensée chrétienne dans la peinture flamande et hollandaise. Lille, 1947, vol. 1, pp. 26, 28, pl. 8a; vol. 2, p. 320, no. 13.

Leo van Puyvelde. The Flemish Primitives. Brussels, 1948, p. 26, pl. 37, lists it with Rogier's principal works.

Theodor Musper. Untersuchungen zu Rogier van der Weyden und Jan van Eyck. Stuttgart, 1948, pp. 16–17, 22–23, 55, 59, pl. 73, as by Rogier, probably painted before his Italian trip.

Max J. Friedländer. "Der Meister der Katharinen-Legende und Rogier van der Weijden." Oud-Holland 64 (1949), p. 160, believes the Annunciation by the Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine (Bargello, Florence) is based freely on this picture, which he attributes to Rogier.

Hermann Beenken. Rogier van der Weyden. Munich, 1951, pp. 82–85, pls. 84–85 (overall and detail), ascribes it to Rogier and dates it only a few years before the Columba Altarpiece; finds the bearing and gestures of the figures not naive enough for Memling; believes it was the left wing of a large altarpiece, the central panel of which may have been an Adoration of the Kings like the Columba Altarpiece.

M. L. D'Otrange. "Gerard David at the Metropolitan, New York." Connoisseur 128 (January 1952), pp. 210–11, ill., ascribes it to Rogier, but comments on "a certain coldness of approach and a somewhat mannered, wilful grace".

Erwin Panofsky. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Cambridge, Mass., 1953, p. 482 n. 1b (to p. 298), believes it was not produced until about 1470—quite possibly by Memling—and shows the more static quality characteristic of this phase; observes that the substitution of a stiff chasuble for a more flowing pluvial in the angel's vestments occurs frequently in Boutsian compositions, but not in Rogier's.

Leo van Puyvelde. La peinture flamande au siècle des van Eyck. Paris, 1953, pp. 159, 167, 266, ill. p. 173, calls it a late painting by Rogier, the wing of a work which is now lost.

Paul Pieper. "Zum Werl-Altar des Meisters von Flémalle." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 16 (1954), p. 97, mentions it as a later work by Rogier.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 85.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), ill. p. 11.

Julius S. Held. "Erwin Panofsky, 'Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origin[s] and Character'." Art Bulletin 37 (September 1955), p. 227, observes that the "near-affectation" of the Virgin in this work is foreign to Rogier and comments that Panofsky may well be right in excluding his authorship, even of the design; calls Panofsky's tentative attribution of the picture to Memling unacceptable.

Ruth Massey Tovell. Roger van der Weyden and the Flémalle Enigma. Toronto, 1955, pp 33, 58 n. 13, pl. 23, as by Rogier, painted "perhaps as late as 1443".

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 57–58, 113–14, fig. 9, as by Rogier.

Marguerite Roques. Les apports néerlandais dans la peinture du sud-est de la France, XIVe, XVe, XVIe siècles. Bordeaux, 1963, p. 10 n. 29, mentions it in a discussion of the knotted bed-curtain and ascribes it to Rogier.

Mojmír S. Frinta. The Genius of Robert Campin. The Hague, 1966, p. 16 n. 3.

Albert Châtelet. "Roger van der Weyden et Jean van Eyck." Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten te Antwerpen (1966), p. 35, attributes it to Rogier and dates it about 1460.

Stanley Stewart. The Enclosed Garden: The Tradition and the Image in Seventeenth-Century Poetry. Madison, 1966, pp. 38, 169, 216 n. 20, fig. 4, notes that one sees in the enclosed garden "the Tower of David, with its gate now opened"; mistakenly states that the bed is covered with roses.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 2, Rogier van der Weyden and the Master of Flémalle. New York, 1967, pp. 21, 69, 100 n. 45, no. 48, pl. 69.

Giovanni Carandente. Collections d'Italie, I: Sicile [Les primitifs flamands, II: Répertoire des peintures flamandes du quinzième siècle, vol. 3]. Vol. 3, Brussels, 1968, p. 12.

Charles D. Cuttler. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. New York, 1968, p. 123, calls it "of lesser quality, in which the hand of the shop is suspected".

William S. Heckscher. "The Annunciation of the Merode Altarpiece: An Iconographic Study." Miscellanea Jozef Duverger. Vol. 1, Ghent, 1968, pp. 63–64, ill., notes that the rope-candle held by the Virgin is still lit, a sign that—in comparison with the extinguished candle in the Merode triptych—the "moment of Mary's 'Ecce ancilla' has not as yet arrived".

Charles Ilsley Minott. "The Theme of the Mérode Altarpiece." Art Bulletin 51 (September 1969), p. 270, figs. 4, 5 (overall and detail), sees the "wax-impregnated ball of flax" with one end aflame held by the Virgin as the closest repetition of Isaiah's image (Isaiah 42:1-4): "the smoking flax shall he not quench" .

Micheline Sonkes. Dessins du XVe siècle: groupe van der Weyden. Brussels, 1969, pp. 40, 44–45, describes the drawing in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar (no. B4, pl. VIb), as certainly a copy of the Virgin in The Met's Annunciation, which she attributes to Rogier; observes that the drawing seems to have been executed by the Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine and served as the model for his Annunciation in the Bargello.

Charles Sterling. "Paoul Grymbault, éminent peintre français du XVe siècle." Revue de l'art 8 (1970), pp. 31–32 n. 40, fig. 28 (detail), reproduces a detail of the background garden beside a detail of a similar garden and gatehouse seen through the window in the right wing of Nicolas Froment's "Resurrection of Lazarus" (Uffizi, Florence).

Robert A. Koch Bernard Berenson in Letter. February 23, 1971, notes that this Annunciation, "attributed by many to Rogier, must surely be by a close follower (not Memling), its supernal beauty notwithstanding"; finds the Virgin's pose "'mannered' in a way beyond and alien to the style of Rogier".

Christian Alschner in Deutsche Kunst der Dürer-Zeit. Ed. Christian Alschner. Exh. cat., Albertinum. Dresden, 1971, p. 95.

Martin Davies. Rogier van der Weyden: An Essay, with a Critical Catalogue of Paintings Assigned to Him and to Robert Campin. London, 1972, pp. 229–30, observes that it is often ascribed to the studio and considers Panofsky's suggestion that it is by Memling worth further study.

M. B. McNamee. "The Origin of the Vested Angel as a Eucharistic Symbol in Flemish Painting." Art Bulletin 54 (September 1972), p. 276 n. 31, notes that fourteenth-century Flemish panel painters, following earlier book illuminators, never used "the chasuble, the vestment of the celebrant of the mass, but always some variation of the vestment of subministers of the mass"; identifies the vestments of Angel Gabriel in the present work as the amice, alb, and dalmatic.

Josua Bruyn. "The Literature of Art: A New Monograph on Rogier [Review of Martin Davies, Rogier van der Weyden . . ., 1972]." Burlington Magazine 116 (September 1974), p. 541, notes that the attribution to Rogier is contestable.

J. de Borchgrave d'Altena. "Roger de la Pasture–Rogier van der Weyden et les sculpteurs." Rogier van der Weyden en zijn Tijd. Brussels, 1974, p. 20, as by Rogier.

J. Bruyn. "Micheline Sonkes, Dessins du XVe siècle, groupe van der Weyden . . . , 1969." Oud-Holland 88, no. 1/2 (1974), p. 166.

V. Denis. La peinture flamande 15e–16e–17e siècles. Brussels, 1976, p. 70, attributes it to Rogier and dates it about 1460.

Christiane Deroubaix. "Un triptyque du Maître de la Légende de Sainte Catherine (Pieter van der Weyden?) reconstitué." Bulletin de l'Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique 17 (1978–79), p. 160, attributes it to Rogier and notes that the Weimar drawing attributed to the Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine was the model for this master's panel of the Annunciation in the Bargello, Florence.

Rollin van N. Hadley. "What Might Have Been: Pictures Mrs. Gardner Did Not Acquire." Fenway Court (1979), pp. 36, 48–49, no. 54, ill.

Micheline Comblen-Sonkes in Rogier van der Weyden / Rogier de le Pasture: Official Painter to the City of Brussels, Portrait Painter of the Burgundian Court. Exh. cat., Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles, Maison du Roi. 1979, p. 77.

Elisa Bermejo. La pintura de los primitivos flamencos en España. Vol. 1, Madrid, 1980, p. 164, ascribes it to Rogier, noting that the related Annunciation in the Monastery of Pedralbes, Barcelona, which she gives to the Master of the Saint Catherine Legend, follows it closely.

Catheline Périer-d'Ieteren. "L'Annonciation du Louvre et la Vierge de Houston sont-elles des oeuvres autographes de Roger van der Weyden?" Annales d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie de l'Université libre de Bruxelles 4 (1982), p. 13.

Marc Dykmans. "Les sceaux et les armoiries du Cardinal Ferry de Clugny, Évêque de Tournai." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 52 (1983), pp. 23–24 n. 1, fig. 1 (detail), discusses at length the Clugny family, their arms and those of Ferry de Clugny, as well as the latter's importance as a patron of the arts; notes that Ferry's coat of arms after 1477, the year in which Louis XI of France bestowed on him the bishopric of Poitiers, was quartered with the fleur de lis.

Susan Koslow. "The Curtain-Sack: A Newly Discovered Incarnation Motif in Rogier van der Weyden's 'Columba Annunciation'." Artibus et Historiae no. 13 (1986), p. 32, fig. 18, as by a follower of Rogier van der Weyden; interprets the curtain-sack as signifying the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh.

Barbara Jakoby. Der Einfluß niederländischer Tafelmalerei des 15. Jahrhunderts auf die Kunst der benachbarten Rheinlande am Beispiel der Verkündigungsdarstellung in Köln, am Niederrhein und in Westfalen (1440–1490). Cologne, 1987, pp. 11–12, 17–18, 98, 108–9, 141, 204, 249 n. 24, p. 252 n. 37, p. 260 n. 61, p. 291 n. 295, fig. 14, suggests that the dalmatic worn by the angel, which Panofsky (1953) finds more typical of those worn by Gabriel in Annunciations by Dieric Bouts, was more probably a type invented by Rogier and subsequently taken up by Bouts.

Colin Eisler. "What Takes Place in the Getty Annunciation?" Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 111 (March 1988), pp. 199, 202 n. 20.

J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer, J[eltje]. Dijkstra, and R[oger]. van Schoute, with the assistance of C. M. A. Dalderup, and Jan Piet Filedt Kok. "Underdrawing in Paintings of the Rogier van der Weyden and Master of Flémalle Groups." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 41 (1990), p. 302.

Jeltje Dijkstra. "Origineel en Kopie: Een Onderzoek naar de Navolging van de Meester van Flémalle en Rogier van der Weyden." PhD diss., Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1990, pp. 53, 58.

Shirley Neilsen Blum. "Hans Memling's 'Annunciation' with Angelic Attendants." Metropolitan Museum Journal 27 (1992), p. 43.

Dirk De Vos. Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Ghent, 1994, p. 304.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Hans Memling as a Draughtsman." Hans Memling: Essays. Ed. Dirk De Vos. Ghent, 1994, p. 80, ill. (overall and infrared reflectogram details), notes in the underdrawing "the graphic mannerisms of Memling's early drawing style" and suggests that the picture may be "characteristic of Memling's work within Rogier's atelier".

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 247, ill.

Molly Faries. "The Underdrawing of Memling's Last Judgment Altarpiece in Gdansk." Memling Studies: Proceedings of the International Colloquium (Bruges, 10–12 November 1994). Ed. Hélène Verougstraete, Roger van Schoute, and Maurits Smeyers. Louvain, 1997, p. 249 n. 16.

Mary Sprinson de Jesús in From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 13, 28, 66, 112–15, 118, no. 10, ill. (color, overall and details), attributes it to the "Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (possibly Hans Memling)," commenting on the similarity in the style of the underdrawing to that of Memling's earliest works, in particular his 1467 Last Judgment (Muzeum Narodowe, Gdansk); observes, nevertheless, that the dry style of the painting differs from the delicate sensibility that we associate with Memling's work, even in the painted surface of the Gdansk altarpiece—in which the figures are, however, on a smaller scale; notes that such a monumental religious work could have been commissioned by Ferry de Clugny for his Chapelle Dorée, founded at the cathedral of Autun in 1465.

Martha Wolff in The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998, pp. 81–82, 84 n. 17.

Jean Strouse. Morgan: American Financier. New York, 1999, pp. 567–68.

Dirk De Vos. Rogier van der Weyden: The Complete Works. New York, 1999, pp. 163, 283, ill. (color), calls it a free variation by a highly skilled Van der Weyden pupil of the Annunciation in the Columba Altarpiece; observes that further evidence is required to raise Ainsworth's (1994) attribution of this painting to Memling beyond the level of a hypothesis.

Albert Châtelet. Rogier van der Weyden: Problèmes de la vie et de l'oeuvre. Strasbourg, 1999, pp. 212–14, no. AC 124–25, dates it about 1460–65; sees the Virgin's wax-covered rope candle as a picturesque detail and a reference to a new contemporary practice; similarly, sees the choice of a sumptuous alb for Gabriel as more decorative than meaningful; notes that there are signs of the participation of a collaborator who worked on such important areas as the faces and believes that this collaborator must logically be Rogier's son and heir, Pierre van der Weyden; finds Ainsworth's (1994) tentative attribution to the young Memling difficult to accept, unless he was working "under the direction of" Rogier and Pierre.

Jean Strouse. "J. Pierpont Morgan, Financier and Collector." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57 (Winter 2000), p. 30–31, ill. (color).

Molly Faries. "Reshaping the Field: The Contribution of Technical Studies." Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads: A Critical Look at Current Methodologies. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. New York, 2001, p. 82, notes that Memling's "ability to re-create this aspect of shop routine [i.e. a functional understanding of underdrawings and as well as a facility in copying them] would seem to be apparent" in this Annunciation.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting: Methodology, Limitations & Perspectives. Ed. Molly Faries and Ron Spronk. Cambridge, Mass., 2003, p. 142, ill.

Paul van Calster. "Of Beardless Painters and Red Chaperons: A Fifteenth-Century Whodunit." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 66 (2003), p. 481 n. 62.

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, p. 500.

Till-Holger Borchert. Memling's Portraits. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Ghent, 2005, p. 19, considers this all that remains of a large altarpiece for Ferry de Clugny that remained unfinished at Rogier's death and and was subsequently completed in his workshop; observes that Memling seems to have collaborated on it.

Till-Holger Borchert. "Collecting Early Netherlandish Paintings in Europe and the United States." Early Netherlandish Paintings: Rediscovery, Reception and Research. Ed. Bernhard Ridderbos et al. English ed. Amsterdam, 2005, p. 212, fig. 116 [Dutch ed., "'Om iets te weten van de oude meesters'. De Vlaamse Primitieven—herontdekking, waardering en onderzoek," Nijmegen, 1995].

Annette LeZotte. The Home Setting in Early Netherlandish Paintings: A Statistical and Iconographical Analysis of Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Domestic Imagery. Lewiston, N.Y., 2008, pp. 45–47, 133–37, attributes it to Memling, but includes it in her appendix as by Rogier; sees the domination of the interior by a bed as indicating a "signature space that reflects his [Memling's] artistic lineage in the workshop of Rogier"; views the enclosed garden, on the other hand, marked by crenellated walls and a tower at one corner, and the "manipulated oriental rug design" as "signature objects" for Memling.

Lisa Monnas. Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300–1550. New Haven, 2008, pp. 143, 355 n. 79.

Jean-Bernard de Vaivre. "Aspects du mécénat des Clugny au XVe siècle." Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 152, no. 2 (2008), pp. 527–31, fig. 19 (color), suggests that it was made for the oratory in Autun in 1465.

Stephan Kemperdick in The Master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden. Ed. Stephan Kemperdick and Jochen Sander. Exh. cat., Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Ostfildern, 2009, pp. 100, 172 n. 8, p. 344, fig. 64 (color) [German ed., "Der Meister von Flémalle und Rogier van der Weyden," Ostfildern, 2008], notes that the head of the young girl at the far right of the "Presentation in the Temple" (right wing of Rogier van der Weyden's "Columba Altarpiece", Alte Pinakothek, Munich) reappears in The Met's Annunciation, carried out after Rogier's death; also notes that the window in this panel—"a stone biforium"—and its lighting effects correspond to that in the panel of "Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl" (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), which he attributes to the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden; rejects Ainsworth's (1994; and see Sprinson de Jesús 1998) tentative attribution to the young Memling and suggests instead that it may be the work of "a former journeyman of Rogier's who had once participated in the execution of the 'Columba Altarpiece'".

Barbara G. Lane. Hans Memling: Master Painter in Fifteenth-Century Bruges. London, 2009, pp. 33, 35, 40 n. 97, fig. 22, calls it one of two paintings "recently associated with the youthful Memling because of their underdrawing," but states that the attribution "must remain open to question".

Melena Hope. "Ferry de Clugny's Chapelle Dorée in the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun." Gesta 50, no. 2 (2011), pp. 114, 131 n. 13.

Griet Steyaert in L'héritage de Rogier van der Weyden: La peinture à Bruxelles 1450–1520. Ed. Brigitte de Patoul and Beatrijs Wolters van der Wey. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. Tielt, 2013, p. 100, notes that Lorne Campbell believes that the painter he calls the Master of the Triptych of Saint John painted the "Triptych of Saint John the Baptist" of about 1453–55 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), the "Diptych of Jean Froimont" of about 1460 (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels), and this work.

Till-Holger Borchert in Memling: Rinascimento fiammingo. Ed. Till-Holger Borchert. Exh. cat., Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome. Milan, 2014, p. 188, under no. 36, fig. 8 (color).

Jennifer Tonkovich. "Discovering the Renaissance: Pierpont Morgan's Shift to Collecting Italian Old Masters." A Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian Renaissance Paintings in America. Ed. Inge Reist. University Park, Pa., 2015, p. 120 n. 19.

C. Jean Campbell in Ornament & Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice. Ed. Stephen J. Campbell. Exh. cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston, 2015, p. 53, fig. 19 (color), discusses it in connection with Crivelli's "Madonna della Candeletta" (after 1490; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan).

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 267, no. 143, ill. pp. 150–51, 267 (color, overall and detail).

John Marciari in Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece. Ed. John Marciari. Exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York. London, 2016, pp. 20, 23, 34, 43 n. 10, ill. p. 14 and fig. 6 (color, overall and detail).

Till-Holger Borchert in Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece. Ed. John Marciari. Exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York. London, 2016, pp. 48, 60 nn. 12, 18.

Maryan W. Ainsworth in Hans Memling: Portraiture, Piety, and a Reunited Altarpiece. Ed. John Marciari. Exh. cat., Morgan Library & Museum, New York. London, 2016, pp. 74, 76.

Master Paintings & Sculpture: Day Sale. Sotheby's, New York. January 26, 2017, p. 14, under no. 103.

Diana J. Kostyrko. The Journal of a Transatlantic Art Dealer: René Gimpel 1918–1939. London, 2017, p. 80.

Emma Capron. The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2018, p. 117.

Stephan Kemperdick. E-mail to Maryan Ainsworth. November 27, 2019, attributes it to Memling and dates it around 1470, shortly after he left Rogier's studio.

This work may not be lent.