Title

The Annunciation

Master of the Balbases [attributed to] [circle of] (Active in Burgos between 1480-1500)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

Ave gracia plena / dominus / tecum; santa: mari[a].

Object history

This panel has been the subject of different attributions: Post (1950) thought it had been the work of the Master of Budapestand even went so far as to state that it was part of an altarpiece composed of a Nativity and an Epiphany that were in the collection of the Count of Demandolx-Dedons (Marseilles). Gaya Nuño (1958) also believed that the author was the Master of Budapest, although on this occasion he joined the panel to the altarpiece of the life of Christ in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. However, it was Haraszti-Takács (1972) who rejected both the connection with the Budapest altarpiece and the attribution, since "On ne pourrait accepter la connexité stylistique des tableaux pas non plus". Silva Maroto (1990) took up this question and, like Haraszti-Takács, denied the attribution of the Master of Budapest. He considered that the author must belong to the circle of the Maestro de los Balbases, an artist active in the present province of Burgos.

We do not know where the work came from, nor the circumstances under which it disappeared from its original location, although it must have been in Burgos. We do not know when the panel went on sale, although it was probably at the beginning of the 20th century, since, according to Post (1950) the painting was in the Ledyard collection in New York. After the death of Lewis Cass Ledyard in 1932, the panel remained in the possession of his wife, Frances Isabel Morris Ledyard, until 1955. Their daughter, Muriel Stokes, inherited the collection and decided to donate it. Thus, in 1958 she bequeathed the work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains today.

Description

The scene represents the moment when the archangel Gabriel appears before the Virgin Mary to announce that she will be the mother of Christ. Mary, who was reading -as indicated by the book open before her-, shows a gesture of surprise with the palm of her hand raised. The narration takes place inside a bourgeois room, where the furniture and the rich fabrics stand out. Among the symbolic elements typical of this iconography is the vase with lilies, an allusion to the triple virginity of the Virgin (Réau, 1996). In the background, through a small opening, one can distinguish God the Father on a cloud, from which rays emanate through which the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove towards the Virgin.

Locations

• XV^th c. - Early XX^th c.

  province

  Possible origin in the province of Burgos, Burgos (Spain)

• First quarter of the XX^th c. - ca. 1932

  private collection

  Lewis Cass Ledyard, New York (United States) *

• Second quarter of the XX^th c. - ca. 1955

  private collection

  Frances Isabel Morris Ledyard, New York (United States) *

• ca. 1955 - ca. 1958

  private collection

  Muriel Stokes, New York (United States) *

• ca. 1958 - present

  museum

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (United States)