The Virgin Annunciate
Masolino da Panicale·c. 1430
Historical Context
This Virgin Annunciate by Masolino da Panicale, painted around 1430, forms the companion panel to the Archangel Gabriel, together constituting an Annunciation diptych. The separation of the Annunciation into two panels was common in Italian devotional art, allowing placement on either side of an altar or architectural element. Masolino's gentle, refined interpretation of the scene reflects the courtly elegance valued in early Quattrocento painting.
Technical Analysis
Masolino's tempera technique produces a smooth, luminous surface with delicate modeling of the Virgin's features. The soft transitions of light and shadow and the graceful pose demonstrate the International Gothic aesthetic of refined beauty that characterized his approach to sacred subjects.
Provenance
Count Gustav Adolf Wilhelm von Ingenheim [1789-1855], Berlin and Ober-Rengersdorf, by the 1810s or 1820s;[1] sold 1930 by his descendants to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold May 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] According to C.A. Böttiger ("Gemäldesammlung des Grafen von Ingenheim," Artistisches Notizenblatt [appendix to _Abend Zeitung_] no. 6, [March 1827]: 26-28), Count Ingenheim acquired his Italian paintings mostly during two trips to Italy in 1816-1817 and 1822-1824. In 1827 the collection was about to be transferred from the family palace in Berlin to Paris. By 1922 the paintings, in part at least, were housed in Schloss Reisewitz in Silesia (see Richard Offner, _A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. The Fourteenth Century_, Section IV, Vol. II, Nardo di Cione, New York, 1960: 24), whereas the NGA painting (along with NGA 1939.1.226) was probably in Ober-Rengersdorf, northeast of Dresden, in 1929 (see Bernard Berenson's letter to Edward Fowles of Duveen's Paris office on 22 June of that year, and Fowles' report to London of 3 July, copies in NGA curatorial files; Box 256, Folder 13, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). [2] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of thirteen paintings and one sculpture, including "paintings representing 'The Annunciation' by Masolino," is dated 18 May 1936; the provenance is given as "Coll'n. Count von Ingenheim" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2350.
