The Annunciation

CC0 Public Domain Designation

c. 1583

Alessandro Vittoria (Italian, 1525–1608)

Alessandro Vittoria translated into bronze the flickering light of Venetian Renaissance paintings. Working in wax (from which the finished bronze was then cast), he manipulated this relief’s form and edges to catch the light. The result is a highly animated surface in which figures, drapery, clouds, and sky seem to move with excitement, heightening the drama of the archangel Gabriel’s announcement that Mary will bear God’s son. Fully sculpted in the round, the archangel’s arm points to the scene’s smallest feature: a dove, representing the Holy Spirit.

This sculpture was commissioned by Hans Fugger, a member of a prominent Augsburg banking family, to decorate an altarpiece for the chapel of his family’s castle.

Status: On View, Gallery 206
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Alessandro Vittoria
Title: The Annunciation
Place: Venice (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.: 1578–1588
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 101.3 × 61.3 × 9.6 cm (39 7/8 × 24 1/8 × 3 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1942.249
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/44741/manifest.json

Georg Lill, Hans Fugger (1531–1598) und die Kunst (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 32, 153–55.
Leo Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance (Vienna, 1921), p. 501.
Leo Planiscig, “Alessandro Vittorias Verkündigungsrelief für Hans Fugger,” Jahrbuche der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 60 (1932), pp. 155–56, pl. XVL.
Leo Planiscig, “Alessandro Vittoria e la Pala Fugger,” Rivista di Venezia 12,1 (1933).
Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell’arte Italiana X,III (Milan, 1937), pp. 70, 116, 120, fig. 89.
Helen Comstock, “Bronze Relief by Alessandro Vittoria,” The Connoisseur 111,488 (1943), pp. 133–34.
Meyeric R. Rogers and Oswald Goetz, “A Masterpiece of Italian Renaissance Sculpture,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 37, 1 (1943), pp. 4–7.
Francesco Cessi, Alessandro Vittoria, medaglista (1525–1608) (Trent, 1960), pp. 50–55, pl. 31.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” Miscellanea bibliothecae hertzianae, edited by Leo Bruhns, Franz Graf, Wolff Metternich, and Ludwig Schudt (Munich, 1961), p. 518.
Manfred Leithe-Jasper, “Alessandro Vittoria,” Mitteliungen der Gesellschaft für veregleichende kunstforschung in Wien: Auszüge aus kunsthistorischen Dissertationen Österreichischer Hochschulen seit 1956 16/17 (1963-1965), p. 32.
Michael Baxandall, “A Masterpiece by Hubert Gerhard,” Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin 1,2 (1965), p. 8.
Francesco Cessi, “Note sulla genesi iconografico–stilistica della pala bronzea di Alessandro Vittoria per Giovanni Fugger,” Studi trenti di scienze storiche (1965), pp. 348–53.
Allen Wardwell and Mildred Davison, “Three Centuries of the Decorative Arts in Italy,” Apollo 84,55 (1966), pp. 180–81, 187, fig. 4.
Hildebrand Dussler, Reisen und Reisende in Bayerisch-Schwaben (Weissenhorn, 1968), p. 109.
Hans Habel, Landkreis Mindelheim (Munich, 1971), pp. 170, 186.
Denys Sutton, “Venetian Art at the Royal Academy,” Apollo (1984), pp. 91, 95, fig. 30.
Michel Hochmann, Peintres et commanditaires à Venise, Collection de l’école Française de Rome 155 (Rome, 1992), p. 217.
Andrew John Martin, “Quellen zum Kunsthandel um 1550–1600: Die Frima Ott in Venedig,” Kunstchronik 11 (1995), p. 535.
Andrew John Martin, “Jacopo Tintoretto: Dipinti per committenti tedeschi” Jacopo Tintoretto, nel quarto centenario della morte, edited by P. Rossi and L. Puppi (Venice, 1996), pp. 97, 99–100, no. 6.
Claudia Kryza-Gersch, “New Light on Nicolo Roccatagliata and his Son Sebastian Nicolini,” Nuovi Studi Rivista di arte Antica e Moderna (Italy, 1998), pp. 113-14, ill.
Andrea Bacchi, La Scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova (Milan, 2000), p. 802, fig. 177.
Ian Wardropper, “An Allegorical Bronze Statuette Newly Attributed to Ammanati,” in Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, ed. Debra Pincus (Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 105-21, fig. 3.
Enrico Maris Dal Pozzolo and Miguel Falomir, eds., Paolo Veronese (1525–1588), exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2025), 302, 326 cat. 50.

Northhampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, Renaissance Bronzes in American Collections, Apr. 9,–May 3, 1964, cat. 17.
Augsburg, Ausstellung im Rathaus, Welt im Umbruch, Augsburg zwischen Renaissance und Barock, June 28–Sep. 28, 1980, cat. 577.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, The Genius of Venice, 1500–1600, Nov. 25, 1983–Mar. 11, 1984, cat. S42.
Berlin, Alten Museum, Von allen seiten schön, Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, Oct. 31, 1995–Jan. 28, 1996, cat. 86.
Trent, Italy, Castello del Buonconsiglio, La bellissima maniera, Alessandro Vittoria e la scultura del Cinquecento, June 25–Sep. 26, 1999, cat. 84.
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Paolo Veronese (1525–1588), May 27–Sep. 7, 2025, cat. 50.

Commissioned by Hans Fugger from Alessandro Vittoria for the Fugger Family chapel, Schloss Kirchheim, Augsburg, 1580. Fugger family collection, Schloss Kirchheim, Augsburg, until demolition of the castle in the nineteenth century [according to Trent 1999 exh. cat.]. Fugger family collection, Augsburg, until 1908. German art market, 1930 [according to Berlin 1995/96 exh. cat.; and Trent 1999 exh. cat.]. Dr. Preston P. Satterwhite, New York, by 1932 [see sources cited above; Planiscig 1932; and two letters from Leo Planiscig to Preston Satterwhite, 16 December 1932 and 2 March 1933, in curatorial file]. French & Co., New York, by 1942; sold to the Art Institute, 1942.

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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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