The Annunciation

Peter Candid (Pieter de Witte, Pietro Candido)

ca. 1585 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

Candid (or Candido) was born in Bruges and trained in Florence, where he began his career as a painter and designer of tapestries. In this grand altarpiece, the angel Gabriel along with God the Father and the Holy Spirit rush into Mary’s bedroom in a blaze of light and color as they announce that she will bear a child. The artist painted it for a small church or oratory in the country to the south of Florence soon before he left Italy for Munich, where he became court painter to the dukes of Bavaria.

Artist

Peter Candid (Pieter de Witte, Pietro Candido)

Date

ca. 1585

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Fabrizio Moretti, in honor of Keith Christiansen, 2011