The Annunciation / Mariano Salvador de Maella

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About this Item

Record Details

Accession Number
1967/1.37
Title
The Annunciation
Artist Nationality
Spanish
Artist Life Dates
1739-1819
Medium and Support
oil on canvas
Object Creation Date
circa 1780
Object Creation Place
Europe (continent)
Spain (nation)
Comunidad de Madrid (autonomous community)
Creation Place 1
Europe (continent)
Creation Place 2
Spain (nation)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase
Style/Group/Movement
Baroque
Dimensions
93.35 cm x 72.71 cm (36 3/4 in. x 28 5/8 in.)
Century
18th century
Primary Object Classification
Painting
Primary Object Type
narrative painting
Physical Description
In this painting, rendered entirely in gray monochrome, a technique known as grisaille, an angel descends on a bank of clouds toward a woman who kneels on the floor before a prie-dieu. She looks downward and turns away from the angel in a gesture of humility, and her head is illuminated by the light from a luminescent dove in the cloud above her. A bearded man looks down from the summit of the cloud, nearly engulfed in light, and a number of cherubim appear throughout the scene. The robust forms and grounded materiality of the woman's body and the furniture around her give way to light-filled clouds and diffused forms in the upper part of the canvas as the heavenly and worldly realms come together.
Subject Matter
This gray monochrome, or grisaille, painting represents the archangel Gabriel proclaiming to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to Christ, a theme known as the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38). The dove of the Holy Spirit appears above Mary's head and suffuses her with a subtle radiance as God the Father looks on from the clouds above. This painting was a preparatory study, probably for a much larger fresco painting for a palace or church that was either never finished or has been lost.
Rights
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Technical Details

Image Size
2381 x 3295
File Size
436 KB
Record
1967/1.37
Link to this Item
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1967-sl-1.37/1967_1.37.jpg

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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1967-SL-1.37:1967_1.37.JPG

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"The Annunciation; Mariano Salvador de Maella." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1967-sl-1.37/1967_1.37.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 28, 2024.
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