The Annunciation
1480
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Aelbrecht Bouts
Aelbrecht Bouts (c.1452 - March 1549) was a Flemish painter of the Early Netherlandish era.
See the richer artist page1480
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Annunciation is a 1480 unspecified by Aelbrecht Bouts, a Northern Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a quiet room with a woman in a red dress reading a small prayer book. A winged angel kneels beside her, holding a scroll. This is the moment Mary learns she will give birth to Jesus, but Bouts painted it like a scene from everyday life in 1480s Belgium. The book Mary reads—a *book of hours*—was a common prayer book for wealthy people then. The folds in her dress and the sunlight on the floor feel real, not holy. To see how other artists painted the same moment, look up *subject: netherlands, leuven, 15th century*.
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.
Netherlandish artists are known for their attention to lifelike detail: notice the sliver of landscape through the window at the left of this composition.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Aelbrecht Bouts (c.1452 - March 1549) was a Flemish painter of the Early Netherlandish era.
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