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The Annunciation

ca. 1440

Italian, Florence, 1406-1486

The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that she will give birth to Jesus, the son of God.

Also known as "Lo Scheggia," Guidi painted small devotional paintings and decorations for furniture and boxes for some of Florence's wealthiest families, including the Medici. X-rays have shown that these two panels were once set on either side of a central panel to form a small devotional altarpiece.

Egg tempera and gold on wood

17 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.

Samuel H. Kress Collection

61.159

Provenance: Mrs. Ralph Wormeley Curtis (nee Lisa DeWolf Colt, born 1867), Boston, Palazzo Barbaro, Venice, and Villa Sylvia, Beaulieu (alp. Mar.), France; [Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome-Florence]; purchased by Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955), New York, September 16, 1938, as Francesco di Antonio di Bartolomeo (exhibited Roosevelt House, Hunter College, New York, December 1944, as Master of Fucecchio); Seattle Art Museum, since 1954, accessioned 1961

Photo: Eduardo Calderon

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Roosevelt House, Hunter College, Dec. 1944.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Renaissance Art in Focus: Neri di Bicci and Devotional Paintings in Italy, Mar. 25, 2004 - Dec. 31, 2005. Text by Elizabeth Darrow and Nicholas Dorman. No cat. no., pp. 70-72, reproduced figs. 1-4.

Published ReferencesSuida, William and Richard Fuller. European Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1954; p. 32, reproduced p. 33.

Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings From the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XIII-XV Century. London, England: Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1966; pp. 105-106, reproduced figs. 284-285.

SAM Engagement Book. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1966; April 3- 9.

Ishikawa, Chiyo. The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1997; fig. 20, pp. 36-38.

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