Altarpiece, Annunciation.

The Virgin, dressed in an ample robe and with her mantle laid on the bench behind her, kneels before a lectern: she turns the pages of a book. Her body is turned to greet the angel who appears from behind. The background is formed by a stone wall with a double arched window in front of which a small angel draws back the curtain.
The painted Annunciation on the back depicts the head of the Virgin Annunciate in a domestic interior with a beamed roof and a window through which the dove of the Holy Spirit appears. The view seen through the open window reveals a mountain valley with a church on a river bank and a castle on top of a hill.
The panel originally formed the Upper half of the left wing of an altarpierce.The lower part is now lost. Only half of the painted Virgin Annunciate and the Annunciation relief survive. The painted panel on the reverse consists of four planks, the back panel of the relief of five planks. According to Hungerford Pollen's report of 4 April 1898 on 259-1898 and 260-1898 (Museum records): "All these carvings are much ruined owing to exposure; they belonged to Mr. Cernuschi who had them in his courtyard". A substantial amount of the polychromy howevehowever has survived. In 1955 the modern restored right hands of the angel and of the Virgin, along with the thumb and the fingers of the angel's left hand were removed. Part of the curtain rail attached to the back panel is a later addition. The right wing of the angel annunciate, both wings of the flying angel, and the tracery at the top are missing. The condition of the painting on the reverse is poor.
The back panel to which the relief is attached with nails (forged by hand), and the curtain, are ornamented with stylised floral motives carved in gilded gesso; the curtain lining is silvered (now tarnished) under a green glaze. The mantle and the wing of the angel annunciate, the mantle and hairband of the Virgin, and the gown of the flying angel were originally gilded. ThThe brickwork wall is painted in various shades of red with some later overpaint, similar to that of the frame. The bench and the lectern are painted yellow, the latter with a silvered cloth. The faces of the angels and the Virgin have almost lost their naturalistic flesh tones but the colour of the pupils is still visible. The two columns with foliage on either side, set in the blue moulding of the frame, are slightly damaged. Their branches were once silvered and the gilding on the leaves still survives.
The Annunciation relief and the painted Annunciation on the reverse are set in a moulded frame hinged on the right side, and once formed the upper part of a larger rectangular wing, which was attached to the left side of the corpus of an altarpiece of the Virgin. The main scenes would have been in relief on the insides of the wings, a painted Annunciation on the outside of the wings, and a Coronation of the Virgin or the Virgin and Child with saints in the corpus.

Cernuschi Collection, London until 1898. Bought from Durlacher Brothers, London, for £50 in 1898.

Historical significance: Although acquired at the same time as 260-1898 (cat. no. 64), the two panels did not form part of the same altarpiece. The present piece was acquired as German, fifteenth century. In about 1950 Delves Molesworth, then Keeper of the Department of Architecture and Sculpture, described it as "a rather coarse workshop production of the Nuremberg School, belonging to the early 16th century". Karl Gruber, Diözesankonservator, Brixen/ Bressanone, pointed out in 1981 that it was probably by Hans Klocker of Brixen, and likely to date from about 1500 (Departmental records). An Annunciation panel (h. 84cm, w. 91cm) housed in the Museo Provinciale d'Arte in Trento shows the same composition. According to Egg (1985, p. 401) this panel was made in Bozen/Bolzano under the strong influence by Hans Klocker. More recently Castri ascribed it to the workshop of Narciso da Bolzano and dated it to 1490-1495 (Imago lignea, 1989, no. 20). The same iconographic formula appears in a relief (h. 92 cm; w.100 cm) by the Klocker workshop in the Untere Belvedere in Vienna, dating from about 1490 (Baum 1971, p. 191), and in the Annunciation relief on the left wing of the altarpiece by Hans Klocker in the church of the Franciscans, dated 1500, in Bozen/ Bolzano (Scheffler 1967, pp. 154-56; Egg 1985, ill. 57), where two hovering angels draw back the curtain. One of the angels drawing the curtain also appears on the Annunciation relief of the left wing of the altarpiece by Hans Schnatterpeck in Lana (Egg 1992, p.54) dating from about 1503-10. The style of the present relief can be closely associated with the Annunciation relief of the church of the Franciscans in Bozen by Klocker. However, the inferior quality suggests it is not by Klocker himself, and must be a workshop product. The style and construction also vary slightly from 260-1898 (cat. no. 64), suggesting that it was made by a different carver in Klocker's workshop.

This pine relief probably formed part of an altarpiece that stood on or behind an altar in a Christian church. The style of this piece is very similar to that of another relief depicting the Annunciation (the angel Gabriel in conversation with the Virgin Mary). That relief, by the Austrian woodcarver Hans Klocker, is in the church of the Franciscans in Bolzano (formerly Bozen), Italy. However, the inferior quality of the piece shown here suggests that it is not by Klocker himself and must be a product of his workshop.

259-1898