Pieter De Witte - Annunciation

The Annunciation is a popular iconography throughout the history of Western art, as well as Byzantine art. It is recurrent in all historical periods from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The Annunciation is narrated in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Iconographically, there are simple variations featuring only the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and more complex variations depicting the interior of the Madonna's home or even city views. The angel's most recurring iconographic attributes are the lily, a symbol of purity, and the gesture of blessing. The Virgin Mary is usually depicted reading a book, interrupted by the apparition of the angel. Another fundamental iconographic component in the Annunciation is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a white dove.

The work displays a very simple compositional structure: the scene is almost entirely occupied by the Virgin and the angel. They stand out in the foreground, leaving little space for the background. The spatial articulation is very balanced; the artist has created a true perspective box in which the two figures are free to move coherently. Indeed, both the Madonna and the angel are subject to twists that, however, do not alter the compositional balance. Indeed, the movements between the two protagonists, being complementary, form an ideal pyramid structure: a typically Renaissance scheme. The monumental proportions of the subjects, whose limbs can be discerned even beneath the ample and complex drapery, are also fully in keeping with the High Renaissance. Furthermore, the execution is entirely in keeping with an overall naturalistic rendering of the figures, along with a certain degree of idealization. On a pictorial level, however, it can be seen that we are now in a post-Renaissance phase. Indeed, we note a more lucid and harsh pictorial style, distinct from the suffused atmospherics and painterly expressions of the High Renaissance. A pictorial style certainly more closely related to the final phase of Mannerism, one of whose greatest exponents was Giorgio Vasari (with whom De Witte collaborated), among others. The light, however, comes from our right and, though cold, bathes the figures in delicate shadows. It is interesting to note in this work the blend of the Italian Renaissance style (with its use of perspective, geometric compositional scheme, and monumentality) with the Flemish style of realism and everyday life. The painting offers us several examples of the way the Flemish painter lingers on everyday objects, describing them in minute detail: the open book with its elegant handwriting; the carpet with its textures; the basket full of household objects; the opening in the background that allows us to glimpse the canopied bedroom.

Pieter De Witte was a Flemish painter born in Bruges between 1540 and 1548 and died in Munich in 1628. His artistic maturity was achieved in Italy, in Florence, where he had a fruitful collaboration with Giorgio Vasari. De Witte participated in the creation of two of the Arezzo master's most important cycles: the Sala Regia in the Vatican and the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. He also resided in Volterra for a period (from 1577 to 1585). His career reached its peak and concluded in Germany, where he moved in the 1580s. In Munich, at the court of William V, he created various fresco cycles and altarpieces, including those for the churches of Augsburg and Freising. It was in Germany, in memory of his Italian sojourn, that he was given the nickname Pietro Candido.

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