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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 144: 

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of two pentagonal
hardwood boards that have been joined together. The size is probably
not original; the edges of the panels seem to be cropped. Tool
marks are visible on the verso and old areas of damage (holes) in
the panel have been filled with a mixture of sawdust and glue. The
gesso ground is white, with a layer of red bole under the gilding.
The original paint layer and gilding are abraded. Parts of the painting
have been overpainted, such as the Virgin’s mantle. Craquelure
has been painted on top of the background. IR reflectography reveals
distinct underdrawing. The diptych is now displayed in a box
lined with velvet, probably from the beginning of the 20th century.

PROVENANCE: Bertha Stenman; purchased 1956.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1958, p. 230 (as anonymous, 13th century);
NM Cat. 1990, p. 415 (as anonymous, 13th century).

This small diptych depicts the moment when the
Archangel Gabriel tells the Virgin that she is to
bear the Son of God. Gabriel approaches Mary
from the left (Mary’s right), raising his right hand
and delivering the message. In his left hand he
carries a thin red staff, and he is dressed in a light
blue garment and a pale cloak, both accentuated
with white highlights. The Virgin is seated on a
red cushion on a throne, incised into the gilded
background surrounding the figures. She is
dressed in a blue robe and holds a book with a red
cover, which by convention is supposed to be the
prophecy of Isaiah (7:14): “Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel”.

The composition follows a type established
already in the early 13th century and has much in
common with the small Annunciation pieces by
the Maestro di Greve, the mosaics in the ceiling
of the baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence,
and the later depictions of the Annunciation by
Jacopo Torriti and Pietro Cavallini in Rome.
The folds of the archangel’s tunic and the golden
highlights of the Virgin’s robe recall the paintings
of Guido da Siena (active in the late 13th century).
But the Nationalmuseum Annunciation is more
static and shows more Byzantine stylization than,
for example, Guido’s Annunciation from the
cimasa of the Maestà in the Palazzo Pubblico in
Siena, now in Princeton University Art Museum.
¹ Guido da Siena and his followers Rinaldo
da Siena and Guido da Graziano were influenced
by Cimabue, whose influence may also be detected
in the composition of the Nationalmuseum
Annunciation.² Infrared radiation reveals some
underdrawing and some minor retouches, which
are confirmed by ultraviolet light. The original
provenance of the diptych is uncertain, but stylistic
analysis suggests that it was probably executed
in Siena or southern Tuscany in the second half
of the 13th century.

The diptych may have been commissioned and
purchased as a portable piece for private devotion.
The unusual format and (secondary) framing
indicate an original setting as part of a small retable.
It is likely that the two panels were originally
separated and formed a pair of shutters to a small
triptych, flanking a corpus with a Madonna and
Child or a saint, as can be seen in similar retables
from Siena and other parts of southern Tuscany.³
A diptych by Paolo Veneziano, dated 1348–50,
at the Getty Museum, and a recently discovered
triptych by Bartolo di Fredi, dated to c. 1368,⁴ can
show us a plausible arrangement and composition,
although the latter has later been altered by the
addition of two French ivory plaquettes.⁵
je

1 For Guido da Siena, see Stubblebine 1964; La pittura in
Italia: Il Duecento e il Trecento, vol. II, Electa, Milan, 1986,
pp. 585–586; Chelazzi Dini, Angelini and Sani 1998, pp.
10–17.
2 Chelazzi Dini, Angelini and Sani 1998, pp. 10–17; see also
Bellosi 1991a, pp. 6–20; Bellosi 1991b, pp. 15–28; Gordon
2011, pp. 348–355.
3 Seidel et al 2010, pp. 248–249, 356, 364–373.
4 Ibid., pp. 364–365.
5 Ibid.[End]

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Okänd | Diptyk med Bebådelsen | Nationalmuseum

Okänd | Diptych with the Annunciation | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011