The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Bulletin

Embroidery of the Annunciation
Netherlandish, late i5th century
Silk and metallic threads on linen (or nue, couch, satin,
and twisted-knot stitches)
81/4X7'/4 in. (zi x I8.4 cm)
Gift of Lois and Anthony Blumka, in memory of
Victoria Blumka, I990
1990.330
In this finely worked embroidery representing the Annunciation,
the Virgin Mary kneels before a prie-dieu, on which rests her
prayer book. The angel Gabriel descends at the left, wings
high in the air and arms raised. The angel's greeting, Ave
Maria gratia plena dominus tecum, is partially legible in the
scrolling banderole over the Virgin's head. God the Father
appears above the angel's wings as the infant Christ swoops
toward the Virgin.
The linen panel on which the embroidery is worked retains its
selvage at left and right and has been trimmed only slightly at
top and bottom. The embroidery probably was once part of a
larger ensemble of images of the Life of Christ or of the Virgin,
perhaps decorating an altar. In its present form, with the scene
almost completely intact and its shimmering silks still remarkably
vibrant, the piece can be appreciated in much the same
way as a small Early Netherlandish painting. Certainly the
artist's composition of the scene, with its use of perspective
and detailed portrayal of the domestic interior, is indebted to
conventions of Netherlandish painting. Through the use of
embroidery, however, the scene is enlivened by the tactility of
the contrasting textures: soft satin stitch in the faces, twistedknot
stitch in the curly hair of Gabriel, padding for the wings
and flowers, and couching for the highly reflective, patterned
gold ground.
BDB
Ex coll.: Ullmann, Hamburg; [Anthony Blumka, New York].
Bibliography: European Works of Art and Sculpture (sale cat.),
Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1989, lot z66; Allison Merrill,
Medieval Masterworks, 1200-1520 (exhib. cat.), New York, Blumka II
Gallery, I990.
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