The Annunciation

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1490–95

Jean Hey (Master of Moulins; Netherlandish, c. 1480-c.1504)

This scene depicts the very instant that the Virgin Mary accepts the archangel Gabriel’s announcement that she will give birth to the son of God. The panel was originally one of three in an altarpiece celebrating the theme of motherhood. It is possible that Pierre de Bourbon and Anne de France, the French royals who commissioned this highly personal work, viewed it as an offering in thanks for the birth of their only child, Suzanne, who was conceived with great difficulty.

Status: On View, Gallery 202
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jean Hey, (the Master of Moulins)
Title: The Annunciation
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1490–1495
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 72.5 × 50.1 cm (28 1/2 × 19 11/16 in.); Framed: 86.3 × 65.4 cm (34 × 25 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1062
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16327/manifest.json

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Maurice W. Brockwell, review of Conway 1921, in Connoisseur 62 (1922), p. 206.
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Jacques Dupont, “L’Énigme des primitifs, le Maître de Moulins,” Bulletin de la Société des amis du Musée de Dijon (1949–51), p. 22.
Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais, S.J., Le Maître de Moulins, Lyon, 1951, pp. 4 (ill.), 5, 14.
The Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1956, pp. 27–28 (ill.).
Jacques Feydy,“Le Portrait du Cardinal de Bourbon et le problème du ‘Maître de
Moulins,’” L’Information d’histoire de l’art 2 (1957), p. 168.
Nicole Reynaud, “Le Problème du Maître de Moulins: État de la question,”
L’Information d’histoire de l’art 2 (1957), p. 176.
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Madeleine Huillet d’Istria, Le Maître de Moulins, Paris, 1961, pp. 16–18, 31–35, 89, 100, 107, figs. 39, 41, pl. 4.
Jacqueline Marette, La Connaissance des primitives par l’étude du bois, du XIIe au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1961, p. 184, no. 165.
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Jacques Dupont, “Jean Prévost, peintre de la cour de Moulins,” L’Art de France 3 (1963), pp. 78–81, 86, fig. 9.
Nicole Reynaud, “Les Portraits des Bourbons au Louvre: Reconstitution d’un panneau du Maître de Moulins,” Revue du Louvre 13 (1963), p. 166.
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Michel Laclotte, Primitifs français, Paris, 1966, p. 36 (ill.).
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p. 227, fig. 284.
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(1968), pp. 30–31.
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Monde gothique 35, Paris, 1988, fig. 320.
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43.
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London, Grafton Galleries, National Loan Exhibition, 1909–10, no. 76.
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Paris, Galeries nationales, Grand Palais, France 1500: entre Moyen Age et Renaissance, 2010–11, no. 67.
Art Institute of Chicago, Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France, 2011, no. 60.

Private collection, Paris, 1906 [according to Friedländer 1925]. Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London, 1906–14; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, 1914 [invoice dated June 1914, Art Institute Archives.]; on loan to the AIC from 1914; bequeathed to the AIC, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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