Title
Annunciation
Burgos, Juan de (Active in Castile between 1443-1464)
Generic classification
PaintingObject
PaintingDate
ca. 1450Century
Mid 15th c.Cultural context / style
GothicDimensions
36 x 13 5/16 inMaterial
PanelTechnique
TemperaIconography / Theme
AnunciaciónProvenance
Possible origin from Castile and Leon (Castilla y León, Possible origin from Castile and Leon, Spain)Current location
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge [Massachusetts], United States)Inventory Number in Current Collection
1928.168Inscriptions / Marks
Maestre / Ju de / Burgos pitor
Object history
Below the figure of Saint Gabriel, the work is signed: Maestre / Ju de / Burgos pitor. Therefore, Juan de Burgos, an artist active in Castile between 1443 and 1464, is responsible for it. According to Post (1930), originally both panels were part of a complete altarpiece, not a diptych as it appears today: "Since the sections of Spanish retables are often framed in flamboyant Gothic carving very similar to that which these panels have preserved, it is likely that they constituted originally, not a diptych" (Post, 1930). The original location of the piece is not known, but there is no doubt that it came from the Castilian environment.
In 1870, John Charles Robinson, who worked as a consultant and purchasing agent for the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum), found this painting in an antique shop in Madrid (Mongan, 1965). Robinson frequently traveled to Spain in order to acquire new pieces for the museum. In addition, from 1869 onwards, he was at the service of private collectors, assisting them in the purchase of art objects. Later, the piece was in the hands of F. Kleinberger Galleries (Mongan, 1965), a firm with offices in Paris and New York that imported European paintings to the United States. After arriving in the United States, the panels were purchased by Paul Sachs in 1916. Eventually, Paul Sachs and his wife, Meta Pollak, donated the work to the Fogg Museum, where it remains today.
Description
This piece depicts the archangel Gabriel and the Virgin, who receives the news that she is going to be the mother of Christ. It is evident the influence that Nicolás Francés exerted on Juan de Burgos, being able to observe in the work the trace of the Franco-Burgundian style (Gutiérrez, 2007). The calligraphed phylacteries, as well as the brocade of the clothing and the solemnity of the figures can be considered characteristic of this painter (Ojeda, 1951).
Locations
Mid XVth c. - XIXth c.
Mid XIXth c. - 1870
dealer/antiquarian
Art market, Madrid, Madrid (Spain) *
ca. 1870
dealer/antiquarian
Sir John Charles Robinson, London (United Kingdom) *
Early XXth c. - ca. 1916
dealer/antiquarian
F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York (United States) *
1916 - 1928
private collection
Paul Joseph Sachs, Cambridge (United States) *
1928 - present
Bibliography
- GUTIÉRREZ BAÑOS, Fernando (2007): "“La pintura gótica en la Corona de Castilla en la primera mitad del siglo XV: la recepción de las corrientes internacionales”", en LACARRA DUCAY, Mª del Carmen (coord.), La pintura gótica durante el siglo XV en tierras de Aragón y en otros territorios peninsulares, Institución Fernando el Católico, Zaragoza, p. 103.
- MONGAN, Agnes (1965): Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts), p. 88.
- OJEDA, Gonzalo Miguel (1951): "Un pintor burgalés desconocido del reinado de los Reyes Católicos", nº 116, Boletín de la Institución Fernán González, pp. 652-653.
- POST, Chandler Rathfon (1930): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 3 (The Italo-Gothic and International Styles), Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), pp. 292-296.
Record manager
Isabel Escalera FernándezCitation:
Isabel Escalera Fernández, "Annunciation" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/379
Annunciation
