Name of Object:

The Annunciation

Also known as:

La Madonna del Bell’Angelo (The Madonna with the Beautiful Angel)

Location:

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Holding Museum:

Church of Saint Bartholomew and Gaetano

Date of Object:

1632

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Francesco Albani  (1578, Bologna-1660, Bologna)

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

365 x 295 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Followers of the Carraccis

Type of object:

Painting

Period of activity:

First half seventeenth-century

Place of production:

Bologna

Description:

This altarpiece was originally commissioned for the Fioravanti chapel in the former St. Bartholomew church. It was inaugurated in 1632. In 1647 the Barnabites fathers commissioned the same painter to complete two smaller side paintings with episodes of the life of the Virgin (the Adoration of the Child and the Dream of St. Joseph) and asked for some retouches to the Annunciation. In 1685 the church was inaugurated and the three pictures were moved to the fourth chapel in the right side aisle, where they remain today.
The altarpiece soon became renown as the Madonna del Bell'Angelo (the Madonna with the beautiful angel) for the beauty of the announcing angel.
Albani builds the picture by juxtaposing the standing Madonna, nearly indifferent to the annunciation, against the Angel that is bursting from the dark closed room with luminous shades of yellow. Following the angel, a cloud of cherubs and putti rolls from heaven in a chaotic but lively invasion. The picture mixes the naturalistic lesson of the Carraccis with the round lines and the vivacious movement of full Baroque style.

This painting was made by Francesco Albani, one of the pupils of the celebrated Carraccis. These three cousins strongly contributed to the Baroque revolution in Bologna and throughout Europe. Albani is a very pleasant painter. He tells the story of the Annunciation in a captivating way, showing the Madonna as a princess full of grace and self-control and the heavenly court bursting with enthusiastic life.

How date and origin were established:

Bibliography.

How Object was obtained:

The object is still preserved in the original location.

Selected bibliography:

Malvasia, G. C. Le Pitture di Bologna, Bologna, 1686, pp. 305-7.
Tietze, H. “Albani”, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler (eds. U. Thieme and F. Becker), Leipzig, 1907-1950, I, p. 175.
Maestri della pittura del Seicento emiliano (exhibition catalogue) (ed. H. Voss), Bologna, 1959, pp. 30-33, fig.5.
Puglisi, C. Francesco Albani, New Haven and London, 1999, p. 155, pp. 183-184.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright image: Archivio fotografico della Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio storico artistico di Bologna, su concessione del Ministero per i Beni culturali.

Citation of this web page:

Antonella  Mampieri "The Annunciation" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus12_D;6;en

Prepared by: Antonella MampieriAntonella Mampieri

SURNAME: Mampieri
NAME: Antonella

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Art Hitorian

CV:
Graduated and specialised at the University of Bologna. She is a specialist in Bolognese late Baroque art, namely sculpture. Among other subjects she has been studying nineteenth-century funerary art in the Bologna monumental cemetery, la Certosa.
Translation copyedited by: Lisa Kelman

MWNF Working Number: IT2 07