The Archangel Gabriel from an Annunciation Group (c. 1350): Art, History and Details

The Archangel Gabriel from an Annunciation Group (c. 1350) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In France, the use of alabaster began in the late 1200s for funerary monuments. The Archangel Gabriel, together with its counterpart, the Virgin Mary (now in the Louvre Museum, Paris) is part of an Annunciation. This is a rare example of alabaster sculpture from the 1300s. The alabaster comes from a quarry near Malaucène in Provence (France), making it an instance of long-distance trade of the rare material. Although the figure is very flat, it was likely made to also be viewed from the back, where there are remnants of gilding and the peacock feathers of the angel’s wing.

Object facts

• Title: The Archangel Gabriel from an Annunciation Group
• Date: c. 1350
• Culture: France, Champagne
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: alabaster with traces of paint and gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 56.5 x 26 x 10.5 cm (22 1/4 x 10 1/4 x 4 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1954.387

A detail from the museum

The surface of alabaster works can vary. By differentiating the intensity of polishing, it is possible for sculptures to create a surface with varying degrees of luster, or shine.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “A Fourteenth Century ‘Angel of the Annunciation.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 6 (June 1955): 118–121.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• “Gothic Art 1360-1440.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (September 1963): 174–215.

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.