The Annunciation

The Annunciation, at the Art Institute of Chicago, shows Jean Hey's treatment of the defining moment in Christian theology—the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Painted around 1490, the work belongs to his career's mature period and demonstrates his ability to combine the spatial clarity of Flemish interior painting with a more lyrical approach to the figures themselves. The Art Institute's holding connects Hey's Franco-Flemish tradition to the broader range of early European painting in its collection.

The domestic interior is rendered with the material precision of Flemish painting—tiles, drapery, furniture—while the figures of Gabriel and Mary are given the more idealized treatment Hey brings to sacred subjects. The angel's arrival is signaled by his elaborate costume and the lily he carries, placed against the carefully described domestic space with a deliberate contrast between divine visitant and earthly setting.