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The Annunciation

Painting of the Annunciation, dove flying above Mary with angel.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Painting of the Annunciation, dove flying above Mary with angel.

Date:

1490/95

Artist:

Jean Hey, known as The Master of Moulins
French, active c. 1475- c. 1505

About this artwork

The archangel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will give birth to a son, and her immediate acceptance of this news, represent the moment of Christ’s Incarnation. Although The Annunciation appears to be an independent painting, it is actually a fragment that once formed the right side of an altarpiece; the left side, now in the National Gallery, London, depicts the moment of Mary’s own Immaculate Conception, believed to have occurred when her parents, Joachim and Anne, greeted each other at the Golden Gate. A central section, now lost, probably featured the enthroned Virgin and Child, perhaps with Saint Anne. Jean Hey, known as the Master of Moulins,was the leading painter working in France in the last decades of the fifteenth century. He worked in Moulins in central France for Duke Pierre II of Bourbon and his wife, Anne of France, who played a large role in the government of of the kingdom during the minority of Anne’s brother Charles VIII. As their court painter, Hey, who was probably of Netherlandish origin, fused the intense naturalism and preciousness of Flemish and French painting and manuscript illumination with the emerging Renais-sance interest in antiquity, as is evident in this painting’s Italianate architecture.

Status

On View, Gallery 202

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Jean Hey, (the Master of Moulins)

Title

The Annunciation

Place

France (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.); Painted surface: 71.7 × 49.2 cm (28 1/4 × 19 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

The Art Institute of Chicago, 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

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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