Seated within an elaborate room, the Virgin Mary looks away from her book on the reading lectern, startled by the sudden entrance of the archangel Gabriel. He holds a scroll with the words Ave gracia plena (“Hail [Mary], full of grace”). Above, God the Father sends the infant Jesus bearing a cross toward the Virgin, preceded by the dove of the Holy Spirit. They descend in the direction of the Virgin. The enclosed garden emphasizes her virginity, and the single white lily placed in an elaborate pottery jar symbolizes her purity.
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Title:Tapestry with the Annunciation
Date:ca. 1410–20
Culture:South Netherlandish
Medium:Wool warp, wool with a few metallic wefts
Dimensions:Overall: 138 x 117in. (350.5 x 297.2cm)
Classification:Textiles-Tapestries
Credit Line:Gift of Harriet Barnes Pratt, in memory of her husband, Harold Irving Pratt (February 1, 1877–May 21, 1939), 1949
Accession Number:45.76
Inscription: (On scroll): . Ave . / . gracia . / . ple / na . (Hail [Mary] full of grace)
Marking: Arms [on shield held by two angels, center top]: Vilanova of Castile, Catalonia, etc. impaling identified arms.
Spanish Art Gallery Ltd., London; P. W. French & Co., New York (before 1922–1924); Mr. and Mrs. Harold Irving Pratt(1924–1949)
Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Masterpieces of Tapestry from the 14th to the 16th century," October 27, 1973–January 7, 1974.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Tapestry from the 14th to the 16th century," February 8–April 21, 1974.
Dijon, France. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. "Art from the Court of Burgundy 1364–1419," May 28, 2004–September 15, 2004.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Art from the Court of Burgundy 1364–1419," October 24, 2004–January 9, 2005.
An Exhibition of Gothic Tapestries of France and Flanders. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1920. no. 3, [unpaginated].
Ackerman, Phyllis, ed. Catalogue of the Retrospective Loan Exhibition of European Tapestries. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Art, 1922. no. 1, pp. 25–26.
Ackerman, Phyllis. "Tapestries of Five Centuries: I. The French Gothic Looms." The International Studio 76 (October 1922). pp. 49–50, 53, ill. p. 43.
Hunter, George Leland. The Practical Book of Tapestries. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1925. pp. 26, 233, pl. III–i, XVII–c.
Ackerman, Phyllis. "Recently Identified Designers of Gothic Tapestries." The Art Bulletin 9, no. 2 (December 1926). p. 144.
Ackerman, Phyllis. A Catalogue of the Tapestries in the Collection of Frank Gair Macomber. Boston: s.n., 1927. p. 2.
Siple, Walter H. "The New Fogg Art Museum: The Opening Exhibition." The Arts 12 (July 1927). p. 35, ill. p. 4.
Breck, Joseph. "The Tapestry Exhibition: Part I." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 23, no. 6 (June 1928). p. 147, fig. 1.
Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of French Gothic Tapestries. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1928. no. 1, p. 17.
Mayer, A.L. "Berichte aus Berlin, London, New York, Paris." Pantheon 2 (1928). p. 372.
Loan Exhibition of Religious Art for the Benefit of the Basilique of the Sacré-Cœur of Paris, at the galleries of Jacques Seligmann & Company, Inc., March-April 1927. New York: Jacques Seligmann & Co., 1928. pl. VII.
Siple, Ella S. "French Gothic Tapestries of about 1500." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 53, no. 306 (September 1928). p. 145.
Panofsky, Erwin. "The Friedsam Annunciation and the Problem of the Ghent Altarpiece." The Art Bulletin 17, no. 4 (December 1935). pp. 450 n. 32, fig. 25.
Crick-Kuntziger, Marthe. "De vlaamsche tapijtweverij in de XIVe, XVe, en XVIe eeuwen." In Geschiedenis van de vlaamsche kunst, edited by Stan Leurs. Vol. 1. Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1936. p. 483.
Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 110, p. 38.
Taylor, Francis Henry. "The Middle Ages in Boston." Parnassus 12, no. 3 (March 1940). p. 9, ill. p. 4.
Townsend, Gertrude. "Mediaeval Textiles in Boston." Art News vol. 38 (February 17, 1940). p. 16.
Ladner, Gerhart B. "The Symbolism of the Biblical Corner Stone in the Mediaeval West." Mediaeval Studies 4 (1942). p. 44.
"Medieval Tapestries and Sculpture on Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Compleat Collector 5, no. 3 (January 1945). p. 17.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seventy-Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1945." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 76 (1946). p. 13, ill. on frontispiece.
Rorimer, James J. Mediaeval Tapestries: A Picture Book. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1947. p. [2], fig. 2.
Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. pp. 88, 134, 412 n. 4, fig. 51.
Rorimer, James J., and William Holmes Forsyth. "The Medieval Galleries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 12, no. 6 (February 1954). pp. 135–36.
Rorimer, James J. "The Annunciation Tapestry." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 20, no. 4 (December 1961). pp. 145–48, fig. 2, ill. on cover.
Heinz, Dora. "Gewirkte Monumentalmalerei - Zur Tapisseriekunst in Frankreich und Burgund um 1400." Alte und Moderne Kunst 56/57 (March/April 1962). pp. 28–29, fig. 6.
King, Donald. "Textilekunst um 1400." In Europäische Kunst um 1400: Achte Ausstellung unter den Auspizien des Europarates. Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1962. p. 438.
Heinz, Dora. Europäische Wandteppiche: Ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber. Volume 1: Von den Anfängen der Bildwerkerei bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Bibliothek für Kunst- und Antiquitätenfreunde, Vol. 37. Brunswick: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1963. pp. 57, 59, fig. 31.
Verlet, Pierre. "La tapisserie gothique du XIIe au XVIe siècle." In Le grand livre de la tapisserie, edited by Joseph Jobé. Lausanne: Edita, 1965. p. 18.
Squilbeck, Jean. "Un aspect peu connu de la personnalité du Maître de Flémalle." Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art 35, nos. 1–2 (1966). p. 12, ill. p. 11.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Monastery and Cathedral in France: Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained Glass, Manuscripts, the Art of the Church Treasuries. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1966. pp. 351–52, fig. 406.
Cavallo, Adolfo S. Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Vol. 2. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1967. p. 140.
Viale Ferrero, Mercedes. "Tapestry and Carpets: I. Tapestry." In Encyclopedia of World Art. Vol. 13. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. col. 918.
Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. p. 242.
Jarry, Madeleine. World Tapestry: From Its Origins to the Present. New York: Putnam, 1969. pp. 62, 63, fig. 52–53.
Ysselsteyn, G.T. van. Tapestry: The Most Expensive Industry of the XVth and XVIth Centuries; A Renewed Research into Technic, Origin and Iconography. The Hague: Cornelis Gysbert van Goor, 1969. p. 38, fig. 14.
Erlane-Brandenburg, Alain. "Review: Madeleine Jarry. La tapisserie des origines à nos jours." Bulletin Monumental 128, no. 2 (1970). p. 172.
Coffinet, Julien. Arachné ou L'art de la tapisserie. Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, 1971. pp. 15, 101, 108, 153, 160, 179–82, 196, 205.
Beeson, Nora B., ed. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. no. 36, p. 219, fig. 36.
Frantz, James H. "The Annunciation Tapestry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the International Gothic Style in Early Franco-Flemish Tapestries." Master's thesis, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1972. pp. 3–28.
Stucky-Schürer, Monika. Die Passionsteppiche von San Marco in Venedig. Bern: Stämpfli Verlag, 1972. pp. 93, 95, 99, 100, fig. 75.
Souchal, Geneviève, ed. Chefs-d'œuvre de la tapisserie du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Paris: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 1973. no. 6, pp. 46–49.
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Souchal, Geneviève, ed. Masterpieces of Tapestry from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. no. 6, pp. 42–44.
Coffinet, Julien. Métamorphoses de la tapisserie. Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, 1977. pp. 28, 30, ill. pp. 24–28.
Duret-Robert, François. "Le style d'Arras: première moitié du 15e siècle." Connaissance des Arts 300 (February 1977). p. [123], fig. 7.
Lestocquoy, Jean. Deux siècles de l'histoire de la tapisserie, 1300-1500: Paris, Arras, Lille, Tournai, Bruxelles. Arras: Commission départementale des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais, 1978. p. 48, pls. VII–VIII.
Wingfield Digby, George. The Tapestry Collection: Medieval and Renaissance. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1980. p. 11.
Joubert, Fabienne. La Tapisserie au Moyen Age. Rennes: Editions Ouest-France, 1981. p. 15, ill. p. 11.
Cherry, John. "The Talbot Casket and Related Late Medieval Leather Caskets." Archaeologia 107 (January 1982). p. 135, pl. XXXIIIb.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. no. 40, p. 354.
Forsyth, William Holmes. "A Fifteenth-Century Virgin and Child Attributed to Claux de Werve." Metropolitan Museum Journal 21 (1986). pp. 46, 48, fig. 7.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 15, 130–31, pl. 122.
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Campbell, Thomas P., ed. Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. pp. 43–44, fig. 32.
Cleveland Museum of Art and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. Art from the Court of Burgundy: The Patronage of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless 1364-1419, edited by Stephen Fliegel, and Sophie Jugie. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2004. no. 101, pp. 262–63.
Cleveland Museum of Art and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. L'art à la cour de Bourgogne: le mécénat de Philippe le Hardi et de Jean sans Peur (1364-1419), edited by Stephen Fliegel, and Sophie Jugie. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2004. no. 101, pp. 262–63.
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