The Annunciation

The Annunciation, painted around 1440 and held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, shows the moment when the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that she will bear the Son of God. For the Heisterbach Altar programme, the Annunciation served as the theological beginning of the Christological narrative — the moment at which the Incarnation is initiated. The Rhenish master follows established iconography: Gabriel approaching from the left, Mary at her prayer desk, a lily vase as symbol of her purity, and the dove of the Holy Spirit descending from above. The Cologne tradition in which this painter worked maintained a particularly refined approach to combining heavenly and domestic registers.

Tempera on panel. The architectural setting — a room or loggia — frames the two figures and establishes the domestic space of the Virgin's dwelling. The angel's wing span and the spatial relationship between the two figures encode the theological dynamic of approach and response that the Annunciation iconography required.