The Artist: For a biography of Gerard David, see “Gerard David (born about 1455, died 1523).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.

The Theme: Based on the biblical description in the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:26–38), the scene is set in the bedchamber of the Virgin Mary. The angel Gabriel enters the room, his cape swirling around him, and with his right hand raised he greets the Virgin with the words, “Hail Mary, full of grace” (“Ave Maria, Gratia Plena;” Luke 1:28). Interrupted from her devotional reading, Mary crosses her arms over her heart, signaling her acceptance and contemplation of Gabriel’s message that she will conceive and bear the son of God, whom she will name Jesus. The dove hovering over Mary is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, who is believed to have overshadowed the Virgin when Christ was conceived.

The Original Appearance of the Altarpiece: Standing before this Annunciation, one is immediately struck by its unusual features. Unlike the more conventional early Netherlandish examples in The Met’s collection, such as those by Hans Memling (17.190.7 and 1975.1.113), Gabriel and the Virgin Mary are painted on two separate panels, not one. Furthermore, although they appear to be situated in the same room, Gabriel and the Virgin are distant from each other, with the Virgin kneeling at her prie dieu a few steps up from where Gabriel has arrived in her bed chamber. The elevated diagonal pitch of the floor is notable, and Gabriel’s legs are oddly proportioned, his thighs particularly long, while the lower legs—from the knees down—appear stunted. All of these peculiarities are explained when we realize that these two panels were not part of a conventional Netherlandish triptych, meant to be viewed at eye level, but instead comprised the central tier of a monumental, multi-story Italian altarpiece or polyptych that was disassembled and some of its parts sold. Thanks to scholarship, the polyptych can now be reconstructed.

In a 1759 inventory of the objects in the abbey church of San Gerolamo della Cervara (near Portofino, Italy), Giuseppe Spinola (1790) described an altarpiece in the apse that depicted the Virgin and Child between Saints Jerome and Benedict, above which was the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation, all topped by a bust-length God the Father. Spinola attributed these panels to Albrecht Dürer, and a separate Crucifixion to Luca d’Olanda (Lucas van Leyden). It was considerably later that Gian Vittoria Castelnovi (1952), again publishing Spinola’s description, identified the Virgin and Child and Saints Jerome and Benedict with panels in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa; the Annunciation as the panels in The Met’s collection; and God the Father as a painting housed in the Louvre. He proposed a tentative reconstruction of these panels, by then attributed to Gerard David, but noted that a Crucifixion, also in the Palazzo Bianco, was the same width as the Virgin and Child panel and might also be part of the altarpiece. Castelnovi indicated that the Crucifixion must have been separated from the altarpiece before Spinola saw it, and that the entire work was completely dismantled in 1799, when, under the Napoleonic suppression of religious orders, the monks abandoned the monastery. Castelnovi’s preliminary reconstruction of the altarpiece without the Crucifixion was adopted as well by Hans van Miegroet in his monograph on Gerard David (1989, pp. 211–17, no. 25). It was not until several later publications (Hyde 1997, Ainsworth in New York 1998, Ainsworth 1998, Di Fabio et al. 2005) that the Crucifixion was joined with the other panels in a convincing reconstruction (see fig. 1 above).[1] This reconstruction was based on careful measurements of the panels and a study of the perspective system employed in the polyptych (discussed below, fig. 4). As is typical of Italian polyptychs from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in the Ligurian-Lombard region (fig. 2), the paintings on the first level of the Cervara Altarpiece all show figures of the same, relatively large scale. The second level shows a diminished scale for the figures of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion. In the third level, God the Father appears again in large scale as the all-powerful holy figure, free from nature’s laws.

The seven paintings of the Cervara Altarpiece are uniformly lit from the right. This scheme was likely chosen in order to coordinate the images with the natural light in the church. An architectural plan of the abbey church shows that the high altar, located at the front of the apse, would have been illuminated with natural light streaming in from a south side entrance to the church (Ainsworth 1998, p. 189; fig. 3).[2]

Further study of the perspective system throughout the seven paintings allows for the reconstruction of their relationship to each other within the scheme of the polyptych (Ainsworth 1998, pp. 188–91; fig. 4).[3] Beginning at the tip of God the Father’s miter, the central axis of the altarpiece passes through the heart-shaped jewel of the morse on his cope, the center of the figure of Christ, and then bisects the Virgin through the jewel in her diadem, and the area where the hand of the Christ Child and Virgin meet at the bunch of grapes. An internal system of sight lines continually directs the viewer’s eye up through the figures to God the Father or to the crucified Christ by way of carefully positioned motifs. Saint Jerome’s processional staff is slightly angled to direct the viewer’s eye up to Gabriel’s staff, which in turn leads toward God the father, or up to Gabriel’s right hand, which points toward the head of Christ. Benedict’s crozier is positioned to indicate the descending dove that is in a sight line that includes the heads of the Annunciate Virgin and God the Father; the scepter of God the Father once again leads down to the head of the crucified Christ and to the central axis of the painting.

The first and second tiers of the altarpiece each have a unified one-point perspective scheme that is intentionally off-center. The orthogonals of the floor tiles in the paintings of Saints Jerome and Benedict meet at a point (or very close to one point) slightly to the left of the Christ Child’s eye level. Just as in the placement of the Virgin’s head against the red stone back of the throne, the slightly off-center perspective achieves a kind of informality and relief from the rigid symmetry of the altarpiece. It allows for a softer, more naturalistic approach to the Christ Child, who looks out toward the viewer communicating the mystery of the Transubstantiation—the Catholic belief that at Communion, celebrated at the high altar, the wafer (or host) is transformed into the body of Christ. Above, the orthogonals of the floor tiles in the two panels of the Annunciation meet at a point within the figure of the Virgin, near the horizon line of the Crucifixion, and on the same vertical axis that intersects the focal point of the lower level. This achieves the continuous focus on the Virgin, to whom the abbey church is dedicated. In accordance with the viewer’s position below, David accelerated the recession of the space, most evident in the floor tiles of the Annunciation, and presented the Crucifixion with a lowered horizon line. This reconstruction was implemented in an exhibition at the Palazzo Bianco in 2005 when all of the associated panels were brought together and fit into a framework that was intended to replicate the original arrangement (fig. 5). This takes into account the altered panel of the Virgin and Child, which was at some point cut at the top and bottom.

The Commission: Gian Vittorio Castelnovi (1952) and later, Helen Hyde (1997), discussed the documentary sources for the original plans for an altarpiece for the high altar in the apse of the abbey church of San Girolamo della Cervara situated between Portofino and Santa Marguerita Ligure. When Giovanni Pallavicini joined the monastery in 1498, he offered funds for the creation of an altarpiece to adorn the main altar as well as silk curtains and tapestries. However, Pallavicini apparently was unable to fulfill his obligation, and Pope Alexander VI granted permission in 1500 for a new patron to take on the project.

Giuseppe Spinola’s description of the components of the Cervara Altarpiece shortly after 1790 (see above) also noted that they were installed in a large gilt frame, below which was inscribed: Hoc opus fecit fieri Dnus Vincentius Saulus MCCCCCVI die VII Septembris (Vincenzo Sauli had this work made September 7, 1506). As the altarpiece was probably dismantled in 1799, the year that the monks abandoned the monastery (Castelnovi 1952) and the frame lost, this is our only reference to the second commission for the work.

Vincenzo Sauli (ca. 1467–ca. 1555) belonged to a prominent Genoese family, some of whom were long-term members of the Bruges merchant and banking community. Vincenzo held important government positions and was a successful banker—general depositor of the Apostolic Chamber in Rome between 1507 and 1515—and also served as ambassador to Pope Julius III in 1550 (Hyde 1994, II, pp. 11–14, 17–18; Hyde 1997, p. 246, nn. 33–35). However, there is no documentation of his presence in Bruges, and this has led some to conclude that the commission for the altarpiece was relayed by other members of his family who were part of the merchant community in Bruges. One possibility is Benedetto Sauli, who was a member of the Confraternity of the Dry Tree during the time that Gerard David joined in 1507, and the two must have known each other (De Fabbio 2005, p. 36).[4] Alternatively, the commission may have been delivered on Vincenzo’s behalf by his younger brother, Pietro, who was apparently often in Bruges and a well-known member of the Genoese community already by 1504. He was an alum and gallnut merchant and banker. Clario Di Fabio (2005, p. 36) suggested that it was Pietro who contacted the artist with the necessary information and relevant details concerning the intended location, ground plan of the abbey church, illumination of the altarpiece, iconography of the ensemble, framing, etc. Well acquainted with the artists in Bruges, Pietro himself commissioned a Flemish-style triptych of the Annunciation (around 1512–15, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa) from one of Bruges’s leading painters, Jan Provoost.[5]

A third possibility is that Vincenzo Sauli directly discussed the commission for the Cervara Altarpiece with Gerard David in Genoa or its environs. As Hans van Miegroet has noted (1989, pp. 25, 217), the documents are silent about any transactions or payments David made in Bruges between 1503 and 1507, providing a period when the artist could have traveled to Italy. However, Lorne Campbell called attention to the will of the Florentine merchant Gaspar Bonciani of April 8, 1506, mentioning the painting of an altarpiece that places David in Bruges at that time.[6] There is always the possibility that a trip to Italy before 1506 acquainted David with the site of the abbey church of Cervara, and the details of the commission for the polyptych were delivered to David thereafter through members of Vincenzo Sauli’s immediate family. Two aspects of David’s work lead to this likely conclusion. The details of the altarpiece, even aspects of its style and technique, clearly have been adjusted to suit the specific location of the work in the apse chapel and to conform to the structure of an Italian-style polyptych. The polyptych was executed in such striking details—many of which would have been unfamiliar to a Northern artist—that firsthand acquaintance with its requirements seems to be more probable. Secondly, David’s post-1506 works show a new understanding and assimilation of Italian compositions, painting style, and technique in his work. This suggests a direct experience with North Italian art that was more likely to have taken place in situ than through the import of random examples to Bruges or even Antwerp (Ainsworth 1998, Chapter 10; Ainsworth 2005, pp. 16–31).[7]

Iconography: The commission of this polyptych for the high altar of the abbey church of San Gerolamo della Cervara determined its iconography and presentation (Ainsworth 1998, pp. 185–88; fig. 1). The lower tier presents the tenets of the Benedictine Order and the justification for the abbey church. Centrally placed are the enthroned Virgin and Child, to whom the church is dedicated. At the left stands Saint Jerome, the named saint of the monastery. He is dressed as a cardinal and with his attributes of his book translation from Hebrew into Latin of the canonical books of the Old Testament, his lion, and a processional staff with a cross and a tiny church in which stands a figure of Charlemagne. Jerome, one of the four great doctors of the Western Church, wrote the book that was the foundation of Western Mariology, which argued for her perpetual virginity. As such, Jerome regularly accompanies the Virgin in altarpieces. To the right is Saint Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order, whose Rule, carried in his left hand, was written at Montecassino, the motherhouse order near Naples. Montecassino joined the congregation of which Cervara was a member in 1505, that is, just one year before the date of the altarpiece. The second tier, including The Met’s Annunciation and the Crucifixion, is devoted to the themes of the Incarnation and Transubstantiation, in keeping with the position of the altarpiece on the high altar, the site of the Mass. Above on the third tier is God the Father, who, as does the crucified Christ below, gestures his blessing with his right hand. This blessing extends to the Annunciation, which led to the Incarnation and ultimately to the Crucifixion, and the shedding of Christ’s blood for the redemption of humankind. Directly below, the Virgin and Child hold a bunch of grapes symbolizing the Eucharist and representing the real presence of the body and blood of Christ.[8]

The Met’s Annunciation is divided between two panels with the Crucifixion between them, as is common for Italian altarpieces (fig. 2). Together they represent the incarnation of Christ and his sacrifice for the salvation of humankind. On the border of Gabriel’s cope are the words of the Lord from Revelation 1:8: ALPHA ET OM[EGA] (I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending), and [VIRTUS AL]TISSIMI OBOMBRABIT T[IBI] (the power of the highest shall overshadow thee) from Luke 1:35, the words spoken by Gabriel to the Virgin. Beginning in Flemish on the lower edge of the Virgin’s cloak are the words: MOEDER ONS HER[N] (Mother of our Lord). Continuing in Latin is: AVE MARIA MATER GRACI[A]E M[ATER] MISERICORDI[A]E TV NOS ABHOS[TE] [PROTEGE] (Hail Mary, Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, protect us from the enemy, [and at the hour of death take us]). This is a portion of the hymn Salutis auctor, sung at the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin for the Little Hours (Terce, Sext, and None) and for Compline. Continuing on the cloak border to the right are further liturgical references to the Salve Regina hymn, sung at the close of Compline, the last office of the day: SALVE REGINA, MATER MISERICORDIAE, VITA, DULCEDO ET SPES NOSTRA, SALVE… (“Hail, Queen, Mother of mercy, Our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail!”). The traditional response is: O CLEMENS! O PIA! O DULCIS VIRGO MARIA! (“O merciful [clement]! O pious [loving]! O sweet Virgin Mary”).

The Attribution and Date: When the Annunciation panels were first discussed in the literature they were attributed to a variety of different artists: Frans Floris (Ratti 1780), Albrecht Dürer (Spinola 1790), a follower of Van Eyck, possibly Van Orley (Weyer 1852), Mabuse (Unger 1852), and Hugo van der Goes (Weale 1862). It was the famous English journalist and art historian Joseph Archer Crowe, who with the Italian art critic Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle wrote A History of Painting in Italy (1864), who first attributed the Annunciation to Gerard David in a review of an exhibition of old master paintings in Munich (1869). Just a few years later, in their book The Early Flemish Painters (1872), Crowe and Cavalcaselle again proposed David’s authorship, this time noting that the panels are “by the same hand as the Rouen altarpiece,” an observation with which Weale concurred (1895). This most astute reference is to David’s documented 1509 Virgin Among Virgins (fig. 6) that the artist produced for and donated to the Convent of Sion in Bruges, and in which the portraits of David and his wife, Cornelia Cnoop, are prominently featured at the far upper left and upper right edges of the panel (Ainsworth 1998, pp. 73–87). Thereafter, the attribution of the Annunciation to David was nearly unanimously accepted, even if these two panels were more often thought to be the wings of a triptych than components of an Italian-style polyptych (see References).

The connection that Crowe, Cavalcaselle, and Weale made between the Annunciation and David’s documented Virgin Among Virgins was remarkably apt. The two major works are separated by only three years, and show striking similarities as well as some notable differences. In pose, including the Christ Child, and even the patterns of the Virgin’s draperies in the two works, the Cervara Virgin and the Rouen Virgin are nearly twins. The Cervara Virgin’s head, however, is more strictly ovoid in shape, with elongated facial features. Her slightly more severe hairstyle emphasizes a broader forehead, and considerably enhanced chiaroscuro effects present a more somber and monumental conception.

David’s aim in the Cervara Altarpiece, perhaps as dictated by Vincenzo Sauli himself, was a conflation of Flemish and Italian style. It was the artist’s first major attempt to blend the two contemporary traditions. The polyptych form itself is Italian, following familiar examples in situ in Liguria (fig. 2). Also conforming to local taste and imbued with Italian Renaissance spirit is the solemnity in mood, and the reduction of form and solid pyramidal shape of the Virgin and Child, seated on the monumental throne, as the focal point of a carefully established perspective scheme. The stripped-down and severe Crucifixion also adheres to Italian models, as it eschews the anecdotal details and implied narrative of David’s other paintings of the theme (compare, for example, David’s Crucifixion 09.157).

Other aspects of the altarpiece, however, are purely Northern in conception. God the Father, at the apex of the polyptych, and the Annunciate Virgin are modeled after figures in the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck (figs. 7, 8).[9] David must have had numerous ricordi drawings of other artist’s works on hand in his studio that he consulted and assimilated into his own works. Extant evidence of this workshop practice are a Study of Four Heads of popes and bishops (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) from the Ghent Altarpiece, as well as a copy after Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and Child at the Fountain (the drawing in the SMPK, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, and the painting in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; Ainsworth 1998, pp. 26–29). Even the interior room of the Annunciation, with its tiled floor and banquette beneath the window at the back, recalls the composition of the Ghent Altarpiece. Instead of imitating Van Eyck’s static and stationary Gabriel, however, David took his inspiration from Italian examples, namely a Gabriel in Vincenzo Foppa’s 1468 fresco cycle of Saint Peter in the Portinari Chapel at Sant’Eustorgio in Milan (fig. 9), which he may well have seen firsthand while visiting northern Italy (Ainsworth 1998, p. 191). As in The Met’s Gabriel figure, Foppa’s is seen in soto di su (from below), in classicizing dress with peplos-like robe and swirling couleur changeant cope. Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin in the Cervara Altarpiece thus becomes all the more compelling through a new sense of grace and urgency of movement.

The Artist’s Working Procedures: The successful integration of Flemish and Italian features in the Cervara Altarpiece, exemplified by The Met’s Annunciation, raises the question of whether David had a direct encounter with Italian art or whether his knowledge came to him secondhand in Flanders. If David in fact traveled to Italy to gain insight about the commission for the high altar of the abbey church of San Gerolamo della Cervara, might he also have painted the altarpiece in situ? All of the physical and technical examination of the paintings suggests that David produced the seven panels in Bruges and then transported them to Italy where they were placed in a waiting framework. The panels are Baltic oak, the indigenous wood of northern Europe, while Italian paintings are generally made on poplar panels. Dendrochronology of the panels by Peter Klein indicates an earliest possible felling date for the Annunciation panels of 1494, thus well in time for the drying and seasoning of the wood in preparation for a painting produced in 1506 (Ainsworth 1998, p. 324; Klein 2005, pp. 94–95). The ground preparation is calcium carbonate or chalk, habitually used in the North. Trace elements of gypsum or calcium sulphate, the typically southern ground preparation, were found (Carboni and Galassi 2005, pp. 70–71; Centeno and Wypiski 2005, pp. 91–93). However, recent analysis of other large altarpieces, such as Hans Memling’s God the Father with Singing and Music-making Angels, has now revealed a similar situation that may have been more wide-spread that previously thought.[10] It is clear from the edges of the panels that they were not painted in engaged frames, as was so often the case at this time. Instead, the panels were secured on an easel keeper at the lower edge, where the edge of the paint is raised (called a barbe). On all of the other edges, remnants of the ground preparation, underdrawing, and paint layers extend out onto the bare wood (zoom in on the images of the Annunciation panels to view these edges).

The preparatory underdrawing on each of the seven panels is relatively detailed and generally followed closely in the painted layers. Looking at the infrared reflectogram of the figure of Gabriel, for example (figs. 10–13), it is possible to see that the first rough sketch was made in a dry, crumbly material. In a second phase, David used brush and a black pigment to adjust the forms and fix the design (zoom in on the infrared reflectogram to see these details). The perspective scheme was also executed at this stage. Even with the naked eye, ruled lines are visible underneath the painted composition, which has become more transparent over time, for example, especially showing through the vase for the lilies to the left of the Virgin. Tiny tack holes at regular intervals along the unpainted border of the panels of Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate possibly indicate the placement of a cartoon for each figure on the panel in order to check its size in relationship to the setting in coordination with the perspective system. The fact that there are no major changes from the underdrawing of the figures to the final painted stages suggests that the initial concept for the figures was clearly worked out in advance in a series of preparatory drawings and cartoons. Of particular concern to David in these panels was the system of lighting, not only the direction of the light coming from the right rather than from the left as was his practice, but also an effort to emulate the chiaroscuro effects of Italian paintings (see further in Ainsworth 1998, pp. 197–98). Here and there, the underdrawing in brush approaches a kind of undermodeling. In the heads and hands of Gabriel and the Virgin, David precisely placed dark brushstrokes for shadowed forms and lightly scumbled over them. In certain areas this upper layer has been abraded and become more transparent over time, revealing the dark brush undermodeling. David achieved areas of half shadow by lightly painting with his liquid underdrawing medium an interrupted line with the tip of his brush as in the area beneath the Virgin’s eyes (see Ainsworth 1998, p. 200, fig. 196).

Although separated from each other on the second tier of the polyptych, with the Crucifixion between them (fig. 1), Gabriel and the Virgin are beautifully coordinated by a limited but rich palette. Gabriel’s robe and wings and the Virgin’s dress and cloak, as well as the bed coverings, present harmonies in blue. Gabriel’s cope and the bag for the Virgin’s precious devotional book and pearl rosary, which spills out onto the tiled floor, provide coordinated red accents. The only discordant tone is struck by the interior of Gabriel’s cope, with its abrupt juxtaposition of turquoise and rose red. A hint of what this couleur changeant cope was possibly meant to look like is indicated by David’s earlier Annunciation of about 1490 (Detroit Institute of Art; fig. 14). The current appearance of Gabriel’s cope could well have to do with chemical changes in the pigments over time, such as the fading of the red (which appears to be a lake), or perhaps a harsh cleaning of long ago. It may also have to do with the fact that David anticipated that these two paintings not only would be seen from far below, but also from a considerable distance in the abbey church. This may have allowed David to adopt a less subtle approach in the blending of these colors, which when viewed from afar work more harmoniously together.

The Cervara Altarpiece stands out in David’s oeuvre as one of his greatest achievements, in which he adapted his style to accommodate his patron Vincenzo Sauli by conflating Italian and Flemish aesthetic sensibilities. The complexity of the project, not only in terms of style, but also of iconography, was likely David’s most challenging commission. How he solved these demanding requirements led to an evolution in his painting style and technique. This experience had an impact on his later works, both in other grand scale paintings, such as the Virgin Among Virgins of 1509 that he donated to the Convent of Sion (Ainsworth 1998, pp. 73–87; fig. 6), and more intimate paintings, such as The Met’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt of around 1512–15 (49.7.21). David’s ability to adapt his style, depending on whether he was catering to his Italian patrons or his locally-based Flemish clients, is exemplified in a few later realizations of the Annunciation theme. For the latter, see the outside wings of a triptych of around 1510 (The Met's Lehman Collection, 1975.1.120A–B), which copies the Cervara Altarpiece Gabriel in a more restrained fashion, his dramatic swirling cope omitted to feature Gabriel’s wings in a trompe-l’oeil sculpture in the restricted space of the niche. There is also the Annunciation in the Staedel Museum, Frankfurt, of around 1509 that merges the two separate Met panels into the more accustomed single-panel composition of this theme executed in a purely Flemish style (fig. 15).

Maryan W. Ainsworth 2020

[1] My sincere thanks to Clifford La Fontaine of CLF Design for his assistance in creating this reconstruction.
[2] Although David routinely illuminated his paintings from the left, his Virgin Among Virgins altarpiece of 1509 (Musées des Beaux-Arts, Rouen), made for the main altar of the church of the Convent of Sion, also observes the lighting from the right. This may have been to coordinate the lighting in the painting with its location in the church.
[3] Clifford La Fontaine, CLF Design, generously worked out the perspective scheme for the seven panels and made the drawing of the resulting reconstruction.
[4] For the documentation of David’s membership in the Confraternity of the Dry Tree in 1507, see Miegroet 1989, doc. nos. 24, 25, pp. 339–40.
[5] See Galassi 2018, pp. 8–17.
[6] Lorne Campbell, Review of Gerard David by Hans J. van Miegroet, Burlington Magazine 133 (September 1991), pp. 624–25. Campbell cites E. Viviani della Robbia, “Un mercante a Bruges nel sec. XV,” Illustrazione toscana e dell’Etruria 9 (1941), pp. 81–85.
[7] For more on this question, see Ainsworth 1990, in particular p. 652; Ainsworth 1998, pp. 188–90 and fig. 177; and Ainsworth 2005, pp. 17–31, 59–67.
[8] For more on this iconography, see Ainsworth 1998, p. 187.
[9] This has often been noted. See Bodenhausen 1905, p. 157; Panofsky 1953, pp. 351–52; and Blaksberg 1991, pp. 57–66. For David’s ricordi of features of Van Eyck paintings, see Ainsworth 1998, pp. 26–29.
[10] See forthcoming Lizet Klaassen, Marie Postec, Geert Van der Snickt, Marika Spring, “Materials and Painting Technique of Memling’s ‘God the Father with Singing and Music-making Angels’” in Lizet Klaassen et al., ed., Memling’s God the Father with Singing and Music-making Angels, Turnhout 2021.

Inscription: Inscribed: (on angel's cope) [VIRTVS AL]TISSIMI OBOMBRABIT T[IBI] ([the power of the] Highest shall overshadow thee [Luke 1:35].) and ALPHA ET OM[EGA]; (on Virgin's robe) MOEDER·ONS:HER[N] / AVE·MARIA·GRACI[A]E·M[ATER] / MISERICORDI[A]E·TV·NOS: ABHOS[TE]·[PROTEGE] (the first words on the Virgin's robe meaning Mother of Our Lord, and the remainder from Salutis auctor, a hymn sung at Compline, and included, as is the verse from Luke on the angel's cope, in the office of the Feast of the Annunciation)

part of a polyptych originally in the abbey church of San Girolamo della Cervara, between Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, Italy (probably until 1799); Gabriel Johann Peter Weyer, Cologne (by 1852–62; cats., 1852, nos. 132, 133, and 1899, nos. 206, 207; sale, Heberle, Cologne, August 25, 1862, nos. 217, 218, as by Jan van Eyck, to Prof. A. Muller, possibly acting as an agent, for 1,020 thalers); ?Prof. A. Muller (from 1862); Fürst Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Sigmaringen, Prussia (by 1869–85; cats., 1871 and 1883, nos. 2, 4); Fürsten von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1885–1928/29); [A. S. Drey, Munich and New York, 1929]; [Knoedler, New York, 1929]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, New York (1929–his d. 1940); Mrs. Edward S. (Mary Stillman) Harkness, New York (1940–d. 1950)

Munich. Königliches Kunstausstellungsgebäude. "Gemälden älterer Meister," 1869, nos. 16, 17 (as by Jan van Eyck, lent by Königl. Hoh. Fürst v. Hohenzollern Sigmaringen).

Bruges. Palais du Gouvernement. "Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien," June 15–September 15, 1902, no. 128 (as by Gerard David, lent by the Musée de Sigmaringen).

Munich. Alte Pinakothek. "The Sigmaringen Gallery," 1928, no catalogue? (lent by the Sigmaringen Collection).

New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "A Loan Exhibition of Sixteen Masterpieces," January 6–18, 1930, nos. 9, 10.

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 78 (lent by Edward S. Harkness).

New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "24 Masterpieces," November 4–23, 1946, nos. 5, 6 (lent by Mrs. Edward S. Harkness).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, nos. 97, 98.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Gerard David: Flanders's Last Medieval Master," April 1–May 9, 1972, no catalogue?

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 22, 1998–February 21, 1999, no. 79.

Genoa. Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco. "Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David," October 8, 2005–January 8, 2006, unnumbered cat.

C. G. Ratti. Descrizione delle Pitture, Scolture . . . delle due Riviere dello Stato Ligure. 1780, p. 28, mentions "un bellissimo quadro" of the Madonna and Child in the church of the Benedictines at Cervara [this is the altarpiece, which included our two Annunciation panels, that Spinola saw in the church shortly after 1790; see Ref. Spinola n.d.]; ascribes it to Frans Floris .

Giuseppe Spinola. Le Memorie Storiche del Monistero, e Badia di S. Girolamo della Cervara . . . dall'anno . . .1360 al 1790. n.d. [shortly after 1790], pp. 596–98 [Biblioteca Universitaria de Genova, Ms. B. VIII. 13; excerpted in Ref. Castelnovi 1952; reprinted in its entirety in Ref. Adhémar 1961] , describes a polyptych in the apse of the church of the Monastery of the Cervara with, at the center, the Virgin and Child Enthroned, on their right, Saint Jerome, and Saint Benedict on their left; above them were the Virgin and Angel of the Annunciation [identified by Castelnovi with our panels; see Ref. 1952], and in the center, above, a bust-length God the Father; adds that all these panels were displayed in a large gilt frame, and that below the picture was inscribed: "Hoc opus fecit fieri Dnus Vincentius Saulus MCCCCCVI die VII Septembris."; reports that the altarpiece was for a long time believed to be the work of Albrecht Dürer and finds this attribution more reasonable than Ratti's attribution to Floris [see Ref. 1780] .

Beschreibung des Inhaltes der Sammlung von Gemälden älterer Meister des Herrn Johann Peter Weyer in Coeln. Cologne, [1852], p. 42, nos. 132, 133, describes the two panels as a diptych by a follower of Jan van Eyck, possibly van Orley.

M. Unger in "Erläuterungen über einen Theil der Bildersammlung des Herrn Johann Peter Weyer." Beschreibung des Inhaltes etc. Cologne, 1852, p. 113, suggests that the compositions are derived from Mabuse.

W. H. James Weale. "Notice sur la collection de tableaux anciens, faisant partie de la galerie de Mr J. P. Weyer . . ." Messager des sciences historiques (1862), p. 457, nos. 217, 218, as a diptych by "Hugo van der Goes?," sold to Prof. A. Muller for 1,020 thalers.

G. Parthey. Deutscher Bildersaal. Vol. 2, L–Z. Berlin, 1864, p. 203, lists them separately by Van Orley.

J. A. C[rowe]. "Die Ausstellung von Gemälden älterer Meister in München (part 2)." Die Grenzboten 28 (October 1869), p. 57, rejects the attribution to Jan van Eyck and ascribes them to Gerard David.

F. A. Lehner. Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Gemälde. Sigmaringen, 1871, p. 2, no. 2, p. 3, no. 4, as by Gerard David.

J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle. The Early Flemish Painters. 2nd ed. London, 1872, pp. 129, 306, as "probably by Gerard David," by the same hand as the Rouen altarpiece; place them at the close of the 15th century.

W. H. James Weale. Gerard David. London, 1895, p. 45, calls them two shutters of a triptych and notes that the style of the figures and the coloring are in the manner of David's later work.

Henri Hymans. "L'exposition des primitifs flamands à Bruges (1er article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 28 (August 1902), p. 295, as the wings of a triptych by David.

Georges H. de Loo Palais du Gouvernement, Bruges. Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles: catalogue critique précédé d'une introduction sur l'identité de certains maîtres anonymes. Ghent, 1902, p. 33 nos. 128 and 128 bis, attributes them to Gerard David, dates them after 1509 and calls them the wings of a triptych, observing that one can see from the floor and the difference in lighting that a central panel is missing.

Max J. Friedländer. Meisterwerke der niederländischen Malerei des XV. u. XVI. Jahrhunderts auf der Ausstellung zu Brügge 1902. Munich, 1903, pp. 17–18, nos. 47–48, pl. 128, ascribes them to David, calls them outer wings of an altarpiece and dates them about 1510.

Max J. Friedländer. "Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 26 (1903), p. 87, nos. 128, 128 bis.

W. H. James Weale. "The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the Bruges Exhibition of 1902, Article IV." Burlington Magazine 2 (June 1903), p. 39, observes that the style of the figures and the coloring of the Annunciation are very much in David's manner and may possibly be by him; mentions a copy of the composition in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, "apparently painted by a Netherlandish artist in the Peninsula or by a Portuguese artist in the Low Countries, the inscription on the border of the angel's vestments being in Portuguese: Modar de Senor".

Eberhard von Bodenhausen. Gerard David und seine Schule. Munich, 1905, pp. 11–12, 15, 19, 64–65, 73–74, 92, 108, 173–75, no. 33, p. 187, ill. opp. pp. 174 and 175 (2 pls.), believes these panels were the outside wings of a polyptych which, when closed, included additional wing elements that created a spatial extension between the Angel and the Virgin, comparable to the Annunciation in the Ghent Altarpiece; considers the Frankfurt version a product of David's workshop and rejects Weale's reading [see Ref. 1903] of the inscription on the Angel's robe as Portuguese.

Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. Vol. 1, Vienna, 1906, p. 386.

[Hippolyte] Fierens-Gevaert. La peinture en Belgique: Les primitifs flamands. Vol. 2, Brussels, 1909, p. 152, lists it as a work of David's maturity.

Ernst Heidrich. Altniederländische Malerei. Jena, Germany, 1910, p. 36, pls. 86–87.

L. de Fourcaud. "La fin de l'art primitif à Bruges: Gérard David." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 30 (July–December 1911), p. 426, as painted after 1509.

W. H. James Weale and Maurice W. Brockwell. The Van Eycks and their Art. London, 1912, Appendix B, pp. 262, 265, appear to confuse these panels, sold with the Weyer collection in 1862, with a diptych of the Annunciation attributed to Van Eyck that came from the Weyer collection, but was sold at Christie's, as no. 73, June 14, 1855, from the collection of James Dennistoun.

Friedr. Winkler. "Gerard David und die Brügger Minaturmalerei seiner Zeit." Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft 6 (1913), p. 279, states that the angel here was the model for the angel of the Annunciation on the reverse of David's wing panels from the Kann collection (now Lehman Collection, M.M.A.) and that these panels thus post-date our Annunciation.

Friedrich Winkler in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Ulrich Thieme. Vol. 8, Leipzig, 1913, p. 453.

Max J. Friedländer. Von Eyck bis Bruegel: Studien zur Geschichte der Niederländischen Malerei. Berlin, 1916, p. 181.

Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance (1280–1580). Vol. 4, Paris, 1918, p. 52, ill. (engravings).

Martin Conway. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, p. 283, considers the composition a later development by David of his Annunciation on the reverse of the Lehman wing panels [see Ref. Winkler 1913].

Friedrich Winkler. Die altniederländische Malerei: Die Malerei in Belgien und Holland von 1400–1600. Berlin, 1924, p. 138.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 6, Memling und Gerard David. Berlin, 1928, p. 147, no. 173, notes that the lines of perspective in the foor tiling show that the panels were not meant to abut.

[A. L.] M[ayer]. "Die Fürstlich-Hohenzollernschen Sammlungen in Sigmaringen." Pantheon 1 (1928), pp. 59–61, ill.

Franz Dülberg. Niederländische Malerei der Spätgotik und Renaissance. Potsdam, 1929, p. 133.

[Hippolyte] Fierens-Gevaert and Paul Fierens. Histoire de la peinture flamande des origines à la fin du XVe siècle. Vol. 3, La maturité de l'art flamand. Paris, 1929, p. 89.

Ella S. Siple. "Art in America—Messrs. Knoedler's Exhibition." Burlington Magazine 55 (December 1929), p. 332.

"Old Masters in New York." Connoisseur 84 (1929), p. 408, ill. pp. 361, 411.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner, ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. Vol. 1, London, 1930, no. 38, ill.

"Old Masters in New York Galleries." Parnassus 2 (January 1930), pp. 3–4, ill.

Hubert Wilm. Kunstsammler und Kunstmarkt. Munich, 1930, p. 34.

R. H. Wilenski. "A Recent Loan Exhibition in New York." Apollo 11 (January 1930), p. 34, ill. pp. 32–33, compares it to the Annunciation in the Louvre ascribed to Rogier van der Weyden, and to a miniature of the Annunciation in the Traite des Louanges de la Vierge offered in 1491 to Philip the Good by Jean Mielot, canon of the Chapter of Lille (Brussels, no. 9270).

H[arry]. B. W[ehle]. "Paintings Lent from the Harkness Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28 (January 1933), pp. 11–12.

V. Vitale. "Diplomatici e consoli della Republica di Genova." Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria 63 (1934), pp. 4, 48, 134–35.

Ernst Günter Troche. Niederländische Malerei. Berlin, 1935, p. 28, pl. 50.

Erwin Panofsky. "The Friedsam Annunciation and the Problem of the Ghent Altarpiece." Art Bulletin 17 (December 1935), p. 446 n. 25.

Max J. Friedländer. Die altniederländische Malerei. Vol. 14, Pieter Bruegel und Nachträge zu den früheren Bänden. Leiden, 1937, p. 106, no. 173.

Wolfgang Schöne. Die Grossen Meister der Niederländischen Malerei des 15. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1939, p. 30, pls. 144–45, as apparently the outer wings of an altarpiece.

Mary Louise Lischer. "The Annunciation by Gerard David, Flemish, Late XV, Early XVI Century." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis 27 (May–June 1942), p. 40.

Joseph van der Elst. The Last Flowering of the Middle Ages. Garden City, N.Y., 1944, p. 98, colorpl. 25.

K. G. Boon. Gerard David. Amsterdam, [1946], p. 44, ill. pp. 40–41.

Ernest Lotthé. La pensée chrétienne dans la peinture flamande et hollandaise. Lille, 1947, vol. 1, p. 31, pl. X; vol. 2, p. 320 n. 18.

Margaretta Salinger. "An Annunciation by Gerard David." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 9 (May 1951), pp. 225–29, ill. p. 226 and in color on cover (the Angel), observes that some lost connective must once have existed between the two panels adding that the window seat and the headboard of the Virgin's bed are "cut short with improbable abruptness"; concludes that the two figures were cut from a larger picture in which the Angel was on a lower level than the Virgin.

J. van der Elst. L'Age d'or flamand. Paris, 1951, p. 186, ill. pp. 184, 187.

H[enry]. L[a]. F[arge]. "In the Harkness Manner." Art News 50 (October 1951), p. 43, ill. p. 41 (the Angel in Harkness dining room), and in color, p. 42 (Angel before and after treatment).

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 226, nos. 97, 98, ill. (color).

M. L. D'Otrange. "Gerard David at the Metropolitan, New York." Connoisseur 128 (January 1952), pp. 208–10, ill.

Gian Vittorio Castelnovi. "Il polittico di Gerard David nell' Abazzia della Cervara." Commentari 3, no. 1 (1952), pp. 22–27, fig. 1 (reconstruction of altarpiece), publishes Spinola's description of the altarpiece at S. Girolamo della Cervara [see Ref. Spinola n.d.], identifying three panels now in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, as the Virgin and Child, Saint Jerome, and Saint Benedict, and our two panels as the Virgin and Angel of the Annunciation; locates the bust-length God the Father in the Louvre, Paris, and tentatively reconstructs the polyptych; suggests that David's Crucifixion in the Palazzo Bianco, which is the same width as the main panel with the Madonna and Child, may originally have been part of the altarpiece, but separated from it before Spinola saw it; believes that the polyptych as described by Spinola was probably dismantled in 1799 when the monks abandoned the monastery, and assumes the date of 1506 which Spinola read beneath the altarpiece to be the year in which it was completed by the artist; describes in a footnote (n. 15) the early history of the altarpiece: in 1498 a Giovanni Pallavicini, upon joining the monastery, gave funds for the creation of an altarpiece for the main altar with silk curtains/tapestries; restrictions on these funds were not met, and Pope Alexander VI granted permission in 1500 for the transfer of the commission to a new patron, who would be obligated to follow the provisions cited in Pallavicino's legacy.

Erwin Panofsky. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Cambridge, Mass., 1953, vol. 1, pp. 352, 508 n. 5 (to p. 352), accepts Salinger's conclusion (1951) that the Annunciation panels were cut from a larger picture.

G. J. Hoogewerff. "A proposito del polittico di Gerard David nell'Abbazia della Cervara." Commentari 4, no. 1 (1953), pp. 72–73, accepts Castelnovi's reconstruction [see Ref. 1952], but argues that the altarpiece was commissioned rather than installed in 1506, and that it was finished before the altarpiece in Rouen which was delivered to the Carmelite church in Bruges in 1509; states that for iconographic reasons the Crucifixion [see Ref. Castelnovi 1952] could not have been a part of the altarpiece .

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 27.

Hans Konrad Röthel. "Ein 'Paliotto' Gerard Davids aus der Abtei von Cervara." Die Kunst und das schöne Heim 54 (July 1956), pp. 361–364, ill. (Castelnovi's reconstruction).

Georges Marlier. Ambrosius Benson et la peinture à Bruges au temps de Charles-Quint. Damme, Belgium, 1957, p. 107.

A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), ill. p. 107.

Erik Larsen. Les primitifs flamands au Musée Metropolitain de New York. Utrecht, 1960, pp. 124–25.

Goffredo J. Hoogewerff. "Pittori fiamminghi in Liguria nel secolo XVI." Commentari 12, no. 3 (July–September 1961), p. 179–81, believes 1506 to be the date the altarpiece was commissioned.

Hélène Adhémar. Le Musée National du Louvre, Paris. I [Les primitifs flamands, I: Corpus de la peinture des anciens pays-bas méridionaux au quinzième siècle, vol. 5]. Brussels, 1962, pp. 136, 139–43, pl. CC (Castelnovi's reconstruction), observes that the lunette in the Louvre may have been part of the ensemble described by Spinola [see Ref., n.d.], but emphasizes the hypothetical nature of Castelnovi's 1952 reconstruction, which she finds "not very satisfying"; publishes Spinola's comments on the altarpiece in their entirety .

Horst Vey. "Johann Peter Weyer, seine Gemäldesammlung und seine Kunstliebe." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 28 (1966), p. 219, nos. 106–7, ill. (engraving).

Charles D. Cuttler. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. New York, 1968, p. 196.

Gert von der Osten and Horst Vey. Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands 1500 to 1600. Baltimore, 1969, p. 142.

Gian Vittorio Castelnovi in La pittura a Genova e in Liguria dagli inizi al Cinquecento. Genoa, 1970, pp. 146–48, fig. 112 (reconstruction), identifies the saint on the Virgin's left as Saint Maur, rather than Benedict; comments that the Italianate and, in particular, Ligurian qualities of the altarpiece suggest that David traveled to Genoa at this time.

Max J. Friedländer et al. Early Netherlandish Painting. Vol. 6, Hans Memlinc and Gerard David. New York, 1971, part 2, p. 102, no. 173, pls. 186 (reconstruction), 188.

Jacques Lavalleye in An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting. Paris, 1974, pp. 52, 68–69, ill.

Diane Graybowski Scillia. "Gerard David and Manuscript Illumination in the Low Countries, 1480–1509." PhD diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1975, pp. 54–55, 70–71 n. 32, pp. 181, 209 n. 70, pp. 238, 247 n. 40, dates the Cervara polyptych about 1511, or at least after 1509, noting that it was dedicated by 1515; thinks it more likely that it was painted in David's workshop rather than in Italy, and observes that "only the broadest definition of David's style can encompass all of the panels . . . as the product of his own hand"; observes that the dryness and loss of monumentality in the main panels is less noticeable in our Annunciation panels, although the stiff drapery of the angel definitely reveals the work of assistants.

Hugh Brigstocke. "Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, James Dennistoun: Collector and Traveller." Connoisseur 198 (August 1978), pp. 321–22 n. 21, ill. p. 320, incorrectly states that Dennistoun bought these panels in 1853, as works of Van Eyck, from the Weyer collection.

Edwin James Mundy III. "Gerard David Studies." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1980, pp. 41, 53 n. 68, p. 54 n. 68a.

Larry Silver. "Early Northern European Paintings." Bulletin of the Saint Louis Art Museum, n.s., 16 (Summer 1982), p. 15, considers our panels the closest thematic comparison to an Annunciation in tondo form in the Saint Louis Art Museum, which he believes to be a late work of David.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David's Working Methods: Some Preliminary Observations." Le Dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture. Ed. Roger van Schoute and Dominique Hollanders-Favart. Colloque 5, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1985, pp. 54, 58 n. 3, p. 59 n. 9, describes the underdrawing as "complete and executed in an extraordinarily free and spontaneous manner".

C. Périer-d'Ieteren. Colyn de Coter et la technique picturale des peintres flamands du XVe siècle. Brussels, 1985, p. 33, notes that Maryan Ainsworth described the medium of the underdrawing in these panels as black ink with an aqueous suppleness.

Maryan Wynn Ainsworth and Molly Faries. "Northern Renaissance Paintings: The Discovery of Invention." Bulletin of the Saint Louis Art Museum, n.s., 18 (Summer 1986), p. 15.

Peter Klein. Letter to Maryan W. Ainsworth. November 11, 1986.

Introduction by James Snyder in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Renaissance in the North. New York, 1987, pp. 11, 46, 48–49, ill. (color).

Hans J. van Miegroet. "New Documents Concerning Gerard David." Art Bulletin 69 (March 1987), pp. 37–38, observes that there are no recorded documents for David between 1503 and 1507; suggests that he was traveling during this time and may have painted the Cervara altarpiece in Italy.

Hans J. van Miegroet. "Letters." Art Bulletin 70 (March 1988), p. 143.

Massimo Bartoletti in La pittura in Italia: il Cinquecento. Ed. Giuliano Briganti. revised and expanded ed. [Milan], 1988, vol. 2, p. 697, erroneously places the Angel and Virgin of the Annunciation from the Cervara Altarpiece in the National Gallery, London.

Hans J. van Miegroet. Gerard David. Antwerp, 1989, pp. 212, 217–18, 221, 227 ns. 86–88, pp. 268, 294–96, no. 25, ill. pp. 211 (reconstruction of altarpiece) and 295, and colorpls. 205–6, observes that the painted edge does not coincide with the edge of the "gesso," which still shows part of the underdrawing; concludes that the preparation and underdrawing were done before the panels were placed in a large frame, and that they were then painted swiftly .

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David, Hans J. van Miegroet." Art Bulletin 72 (December 1990), pp. 652–53, notes that Vincenzo Sauli was occupied with diplomatic missions in Italy in 1506, and that the commission, therefore, was made either in Italy or through an agent of Sauli's in Bruges; believes that David knew the proposed site of the altarpiece, since his subjects, habitually lit from the left, are lit from the right to accord with specific lighting conditions; also notes that the proportions of the figures indicate that he knew the altarpiece was to be seen from below and at a distance; describes the ground as chalk and glue, rather than gesso, noting that the panels were painted out of their frames and "only have a barbe at all on the lower edge;" doubts that grounded panels would have been sent to Italy, particularly not with the charcoal underdrawing of some of the panels; considers it likely that the paintings were produced in the North and shipped to Italy to fit into a frame at a site that perhaps David himself had seen.

Licia Collobi Ragghianti. Dipinti Fiamminghi in Italia, 1420–1570: catalogo. Bologna, 1990, p. 80.

Leslie Ann Blacksberg. "The Paintings of the Godhead by Jan van Eyck and Gerard David: A Study of Influence and Effect (1)." Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture. Ed. Hélène Verougstraete-Marcq and Roger van Schoute. Colloque 8, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1991, p. 57, pl. 31 (ill. within reconstruction).

Maryan W. Ainsworth, Selected by Guy C. Bauman, and Walter A. Liedtke in Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, pp. 88–91, 128, no. 21, ill. (color).

Laura Tagliaferro and Clario Di Fabio. La Galleria di Palazzo Bianco: Guida. Milan, 1992, p. 40.

Jochen Sander. Niederländische Gemälde im Städel, 1400–1550. Mainz, 1993, pp. 235–43, ill. (the two panels and reconstruction of altarpiece), calls these panels the model for the "Annunciation" in Frankfurt, which he ascribes to David.

Helen M. Hyde. "Early Cinquecento 'Popolare' Art Patronage in Genoa, 1500–1528." PhD diss., Birkbeck College, University of London, 1994, pp. 246–60.

Jochen Sander. "Die Entdeckung der Kunst": Niederländische Kunst des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts in Frankfurt. Exh. cat., Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt. Mainz, 1995, p. 157, fig. 153.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 260, ill.

Peter Klein. Letter to Maryan Ainsworth. May 12, 1997, provides dendrochronological analyis of these panels.

Clario Di Fabio. "Gerard David e il Polittico di San Gerolamo della Cervara." Pittura fiamminga in Liguria, secoli XIV–XVII. Ed. Piero Boccardo and Clario Di Fabio. Genoa, 1997.

Helen Hyde. "Gerard David's Cervara Altarpiece – An Examination of the Commission for the Monastery of San Girolamo della Cervara." Arte Cristiana 85 (July–August 1997), pp. 245–54, figs. 4 and 5, notes that when Pallavicin's funds for an altarpiece at the monastery did not materialize [see Ref. Castelnovi, 1952], Vincenzo Sauli, perhaps acting as a banker for the monastery, may have become aware of their need for a patron; argues for the inclusion of the Crucifixion in the reconstruction of the altarpiece.

Otto Pächt. Early Netherlandish Painting from Rogier van der Weyden to Gerard David. Ed. Monika Rosenauer. London, 1997, p. 250, ill. (both panels), and colorpl. 32 (Virgin Annunciate).

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "A Meeting of Sacred and Secular Worlds." From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth and Keith Christiansen. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 35–36, 43, 58, 71, 85, 114, 118, 228, 279–80, 293, 296–301, 314, 364, no. 79, ill. (overall and detail in color, and reconstruction of Cervara Altarpiece), notes that Vincenzo Sauli's family had connections in Bruges and worked there as bankers by 1506, but adds that the style of the paintings suggest that David may have had direct knowledge of the site near Genoa; comments on the altarpiece's Italianate organization, following Ligurian retables of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and its synthesis of Italian and northern styles; suggests that David may have seen and been inspired by the Gabriel in Vincenzo Foppa's 1468 fresco of the Annunciation in the Portinari chapel of Sant'Eustorgio in Milan.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. Gerard David: Purity of Vision in an Age of Transition. New York, 1998, pp. vii, 3, 14, 20, 54 n. 39, pp. 78, 81, 83, 85, 87, 148, 154, 156–57, 169, 177–201, 204–5 nn. 112, 114, pp. 235, 237, 316, 320, 324, ill. (overall and details in color, reconstruction and perspectival diagram of Cervara Altarpiece, and IRR details), places in the second tier of her reconstruction the Crucifixion in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa; discusses the polyptych's illumination from the right, its one-point perspective which she believes is intentionally off-center, and examines the iconography in depth.

Martha Wolff in The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings. New York, 1998, p. 24 n. 20, pp. 104, 110–12 n. 18, ill.

Maria Fontana Amoretti and Michiel Plomp. Repertory of Dutch and Flemish Paintings in Italian Public Collections. Ed. Bert W. Meijer. Vol. 1, Liguria. Florence, 1998, p. 91.

Kunstmuseum Basel. Die Sammlung Max Geldner im Kunstmuseum Basel: Vermächtnis und Ankäufe der Stiftung. Basel, 2000, p. 34.

Cyriel Stroo et al. The Flemish Primitives: Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Vol. 3, The Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Bouts, Gerard David, Colijn de Coter and Goossen van der Weyden Groups. Brussels, 2001, p. 240.

Elena Parma in Till-Holger Borchert. The Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting, 1430–1530. Exh. cat., Groeningemuseum, Bruges. Ghent, 2002, p. 100, fig. 122 (color).

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "'Diverse patterns pertaining to the crafts of painters or illuminators': Gerard David and the Bening Workshop." Master Drawings 41, no. 3 (2003), pp. 244, 248, 262, ill.

Carla Cavelli Traverso in Primitivi fiamminghi in Liguria. Ed. Carla Cavelli Traverso. Recco, Genoa, 2003, p. 83.

John Oliver Hand. Joos van Cleve: The Complete Paintings. New Haven, 2004, p. 84, discusses these panels as a source for Joos's Annunciation (MMA 32.100.60).

Paula Nuttall. From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400–1500. New Haven, 2004, p. 265 n. 18.

Everett Fahy in The Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, p. 2.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Gerard David. Vita e opere." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 16–19, 21–22, 30, discusses David's possible contacts with Italian, specifically Lombard, painting.

Clario Di Fabio. "Gerard David, Vincenzo Sauli, e il 'Polittico della Cervara'." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 35–39, 41, 44–47, 56 n. 65, ill. in color, figs. 18 (reconstruction), 21 (angel), 22 (Virgin), states that Benedetto Sauli was a member of the Confraternity of the Dry Tree during the same period as Gerard David and they must surely have known each other; sees the former as the "intermediary" for the commission of the altarpiece, but suggests that Pietro Sauli, who was in Bruges from 1504, contacted the artist directly with information regarding the character of the building and its ground plan, the orientation of the space where the altarpiece would be installed, and its illumination; notes that Pietro would also have discussed with David the dimensions of the altarpiece, its theme, the time frame for its completion, and the price to be paid; asserts that the contract was signed in Bruges and all the work was executed there, rejecting any notion that David traveled to Italy between 1506 and 1507; mentions evidence that the artist was in Bruges in April 1506 and believes he was there in September to accept the commission for the Cervara altarpiece.

Maryan W. Ainsworth. "Il progetto di Gerard David per il 'Polittico della Cervara'." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 59–67, figs. 36, 38 (angel and infrared reflectogram of angel), believes David experienced Italian art first-hand, probably in Liguria and Lombardy—evidently in the years between 1503–7 when David is not recorded in Bruges; sees the setting of our Annunciation as generally inspired by Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece but calls the figure of Gabriel distinctly Italianate, a figure most likely inspired by Vincenzo Foppa's 1468 fresco cycle in the Portinari Chapel at Sant'Eustorgio in Milan that David must have visited; notes that only slight changes occur in the contours of forms from the underdrawing to the painted layers and concludes that David worked from model drawings in contrast to his earlier practice of freely altering the figures and composition as he worked; remarks that David used charcoal rather than his usual black chalk, probably due to a new acquaintance with Italian practice; also comments on David's first use here of wash underdrawing typical of Leonardo and his Milanese followers; states that there is a carefully planned system of sight lines uniting all the figures and insuring a focus on the Virgin and Child, Crucifixion, and God the Father.

Franca Carboni and Maria Clelia Galassi. "La tecnica esecutiva del 'Polittico della Cervara.' Indagini sulle tavole di Palazzo Bianco." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 70–71, 76, following technical investigation of the four panels in the Palazzo Bianco observe that their handling is completely homogeneous and conclude that there was little if any workshop participation in their creation; also mention that samples of the ground taken in areas with green revealed that some calcium sulphate—an unequivically Italian preparation—was present, although it was not found in the New York panels [see Ref. Centeno and Wypyski 2005], and tentatively suggest that David was stimulated by personal experience with Italian painting methods.

Silvia A. Centeno and Mark T. Wypyski. "Analisi chimiche su campioni prelevati dal 'Polittico della Cervara,' The Metropolitan Museum, New York." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 91–92, consider the calcium sulphate in the preperatory layer of our Angel and Virgin panels a trace element and believe further research is needed before it can be concluded that it was used as a ground in the Italian manner [see Ref. Carboni and Galassi 2005].

Peter Klein. "L'analisi dendrocronologica del 'Polittico della Cervara'." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, p. 94, based on analysis of growth rings provides felling dates for trees used in the creation of our panels and for the other parts of the polyptych.

Clario Di Fabio. "Una sublime disciplina, una splendida misura. Premessa al polittico e alla mostra." Il Polittico della Cervara di Gerard David. Ed. Clario Di Fabio. Exh. cat., Musei di Strada Nuova — Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. Milan, 2005, pp. 10–11.

Annette LeZotte. The Home Setting in Early Netherlandish Paintings: A Statistical and Iconographical Analysis of Fifteenth- and Early Sixteenth-Century Domestic Imagery. Lewiston, N.Y., 2008, pp. 75–76, 143–47.

Stephan Kemperdick in Van Eyck to Dürer: Early Netherlandish Painting & Central Europe, 1430–1530. Exh. cat., Groeningemuseum, Bruges. Tielt, Belgium, 2010, p. 142, under no. 15.

Maryan W. Ainsworth in Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance. Ed. Maryan W. Ainsworth. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 87 n. 46.

Maria Clelia Galassi in Joos van Cleve, Leonardo des Nordens. Ed. Peter van den Brink et al. Exh. cat., Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen. Stuttgart, 2011, p. 73.

Maria Clelia Galassi. "An Addition to the Sauli Family's Commissions in Bruges: The Genoa 'Annunciation Triptych' Attributed to Jan Provoost." Simiolus 40, no. 1 (2018), pp. 8, 15–17, fig. 11 (altarpiece reconstruction).