The Annunciation

This scene—the archangel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, the son of God—may appear to be complete, but it is actually a fragment of a larger altarpiece. X-radiography and infrared reflectography indicate that a figure originally stood along the left edge. At some point before 1906, this figure was scraped out and painted over.

The painting served as the right wing of an altarpiece; scholars have identified the left wing as a painting depicting the meeting of Mary’s parents (about 1491–94; National Gallery, London). Not only do both panels have figures painted with the precious pigment ultramarine along one of their edges, but they are united in theme: The London panel represents the moment in which Mary is conceived, while the Chicago panel illustrates the moment of Jesus’s conception.

Jean Hey, court painter to Pierre II, Duke of Bourbon, and his wife, Anne of France, may have made this altarpiece to celebrate the birth of their only child. The sumptuous palette and crisp definition of form echo Franco-Flemish manuscript painting, while the barrel vault and marble column—reflecting a blossoming interest in antiquity in the late 1400s—imbue this scene with a timeless quality.