The Annunciation (c. 1480): Art, History and Details

The Annunciation (c. 1480) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albert Bouts (Netherlandish, 1451/55–1549).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The scene of the Annunciation to Mary that she will give birth to Christ is depicted here as a contemporary scene that may have been familiar to any viewer at the end of the 1400s. Mary is portrayed as an ordinary but wealthy woman who is interrupted by the Archangel Gabriel as she reads a book of hours. This type of book was enormously popular in the late Middle Ages as a prayer and devotional book, particularly among the wealthy, literate nobility, and city aristocracy.

Object facts

• Title: The Annunciation
• Date: c. 1480
• Creator attribution: Albert Bouts (Netherlandish, 1451/55–1549)
• Culture: Netherlands, Leuven, 15th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 75.2 x 69 x 8.5 cm (29 5/8 x 27 3/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 50.2 x 41.5 cm (19 3/4 x 16 5/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1942.635

A detail from the museum

Netherlandish artists are known for their attention to lifelike detail: notice the sliver of landscape through the window at the left of this composition.

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus. Gemälde-Galerie vom Schlosse Driburg. 1887.
• Hulin de Loo, Georges. Catalogue critique: exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles : Bruges 1902. Gand: Siffer, 1902.
• "Cleveland Gets a Corot," American Art News, Vol. 13, No. 33. (June 12, 1915).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.