[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. 11 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
THE ANNUNCIATION: _The Virgin, in a blue robe lined with red, is seated
before a reading-desk in a white marble portico with a tile floor. Behind
her is a red and metal gold brocade. The lily is in a majolica jar.
The angel, in a green robe with yellow high lights lined with red, has
alighted in a garden without. In the sky, God the Father holding the globe
and two angels bearing a shield._
The treatment of the sky in two-toned blue and white striations, as well
as the conventional landscape without perspective, with small oak and
laurel trees, is characteristic of a number of tapestries of the opening
years of the XVth century. Most of them depicted hunting scenes. But
there was one famous religious piece, the _Passion_ of the Cathedral of
Saragossa. In the drawing of the figures and some of the details the piece
is closely related to the paintings of that Paris school of which Jean
Malouel is the most famous member. The work is by no means by Malouel,
but it is similar to that of one of his lesser contemporaries, whose only
known surviving work is a set of six panels painted on both sides, two of
which are in the Cuvellier Collection at Niort and the others in the Mayer
Van der Bergh Collection at Antwerp. The very primitively rendered Eternal
Father is almost identical with the one that appears in several of the
panels; the roughly indicated shaggy grass is the same, the rather unusual
angle of the angel's wings recurs in the Cuvellier _Annunciation_, as does
the suspended poise of the Virgin's attitude. The Virgin's reading-desk,
too, is almost identical, though shown in the panel at the other side of
the scene. The long, slim-fingered hands and the pointed nose and chin of
the Virgin are characteristic of the school.
The tiles in the portico, so carefully rendered, are of interest
because they are very similar to the earliest-known tile floor still
in position--that of the Caracciolo Chapel in Naples. Some of the same
patterns are repeated, notably that of the Virgin's initial and the star,
which is more crudely rendered. The colors, too, are approximately the
same, the brown being a fair rendering of the manganese purple of the
chapel tiles. The majolica vase is also interesting as illustrating a type
of which few intact examples are left.
[Sidenote: Exhibited:
_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The piece maintains a high level of æsthetic expression. The religious
emotion is intensely felt and is adequately conveyed in the wistful
sadness of the Virgin's face and the expectant suspense of her poised
body. The portico seems removed from reality and flooded by a direct
heavenly light, in its shining whiteness contrasting with the deep
blue-green background. This tapestry by virtue of its intense and elevated
feeling, purified by æsthetic calm and by its exceptional decorative
vividness, ranks with the very great masterpieces of the graphic arts.
[Sidenote: 2]