Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
The Archangel Gabriel
(Renaissance Europe )
This small panel of the Archangel Gabriel was originally one of three "pinnacles" (crowning elements) from the upper section of a large triptych painted in the mid-1480s by Bernardino del Castelletto for the church of San Pietro a Bagnara in Massa, a city on the coast of the Tyrrenhian Sea in central Italy. The main panels of the triptych, now in Massa’s cathedral museum, depict the Virgin and Child flanked by four saints. The Walters panel surmounted the left panel of the triptych, opposite an image of the Virgin (now lost) over the right panel. Together these pinnacles formed an image of the Annunciation, the episode from the Bible in which the Archangel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary and announces that she will bear the savior of the world. For a triptych with a comparable set of pinnacles, see Walters 37.554.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Church of San Pietro in Bagnara, Massa. Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 19, as Andrea Verrocchio]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 1/7/1958 | Treatment | coated; other |
| 10/22/1965 | Treatment | cleaned; loss compensation; coated |
| 6/25/2004 | Examination | examined for condition |
Geographies
Italy, Massa (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H: 19 7/8 x W: 10 9/16 in. (50.5 x 26.8 cm); Panel H excluding modern frame: 20 1/8 x W: 11 x D: 7/8 in. (51.1 x 27.9 x 2.3 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1059