Statue, marble relief, depicting the Virgin Annunciate, Italy (Venice), 1350-1375

Relief in marble. The Virgin is shown turned to the right standing in full-length on a moulded plinth. Her right hand rests on her breast and her left hand is raised. Behind is the upper right corner of an oblong panel moulded panel with, above, a strip of foliated ornament, and on the left is a concealed spiral column with a foliated capital.

Given by Dr W. L. Hildburgh

Given by Dr. W. L. Hildburgh, F. S. A., 1952.

The figure, with the companion relief of the Anunciatory Angel (A.3A-1952) has been identified by Pope-Hennessy as belonging to a class of Venetian Sarcophagus relief of which examples exist in the Estensische Kunstsammlung (Vienna) and elsewhere. The practice of decorating the outer corners of sarcophagi with reliefs of the Virgin Annunciate and the Annunciatory Angel seems to have originated in the Castellano di Salomone monument in the Duomo at Treviso (1321), and continue through the third quarter of the fourteenth century in, e.g., the Andrea Dandolo monument in Saint Marks (1354) and the Giovanni Dolfin monuments in Santi Giovanni e Paolo (ca. 1361). The present example differs from those in Vienna in the substitution of a strip of foliated pattern for the indented ornament customarily found beneath the moulding at the top. The flat schematic handling of the drapery in both reliefs recalls that in the comparable reliefs on the tomb of Doge Bartolommeo Gradenigo in the atrium of St Mark's (1342), though the level of execution is lower than in the Gradenigo.

This figure, with the companion relief of the Annunciatory Angel (A.2-1952) has been identified as part of Venetian Sarcophagus. The practice of decorating the outer corners of sarcophagi with reliefs of the Virgin Annunciate and the Annunciatory Angel seems to have originated in the Castellano di Salomone monument in the cathedral at Treviso (1321), and continued throughout the third quarter of the fourteenth century.

A.3-1952