The Archangel Gabriel announcing the birth of Christ
Lucas van Leyden Netherlandish
Not on view
Van Leyden's international fame rests almost exclusively upon his work as a printmaker. His drawings are very rare (not even thirty are known today), but many are of exceptional quality. This sheet—a recent, unexpected discovery and the only drawing by the artist in America—complements one of comparable size and technique in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett that depicts the Virgin looking up in surprise at hearing the archangel's message. The pair may have been designs for stained-glass panels. In them, he combined the monumentality of figures he admired in contemporary Italian art with a drawing style that is thoroughly Northern—a rich and subtle pattern of lines, hatchings, and cross-hatchings that lends great plasticity to the figure.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
