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拍品专文
This print is one of Bellange's rarest and most charming compositions, and a perfect example of his refined yet highly idiosyncratic manner. The figures are majestic and elegant, with an expressive artificiality that is entirely Bellange's own. In the present composition he achieved a miraculous blending of the earthly and celestial spheres, which is central to this important moment of the biblical narrative.
The artist presumably took inspiration from other etchings of the Annunciation, in particular those of Federico Barocci (Bartsch 1) and Ventura Salimbeni (Bartsch 4), but the most influential source was undoubtedly Caravaggio's painting of the scene, which arrived soon after its completion in 1608 in Nancy, where Bellange was working from 1602 until his death in 1616. The painting was a gift by the Duke of Lorraine to the city of Nancy, where it was installed in the cathedral (today Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy).
To our knowledge, only one other impression of this print has been offered at auction within the last thirty years. The only known impression of the first state, before Bellange's signature, is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 40.101).
The artist presumably took inspiration from other etchings of the Annunciation, in particular those of Federico Barocci (Bartsch 1) and Ventura Salimbeni (Bartsch 4), but the most influential source was undoubtedly Caravaggio's painting of the scene, which arrived soon after its completion in 1608 in Nancy, where Bellange was working from 1602 until his death in 1616. The painting was a gift by the Duke of Lorraine to the city of Nancy, where it was installed in the cathedral (today Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy).
To our knowledge, only one other impression of this print has been offered at auction within the last thirty years. The only known impression of the first state, before Bellange's signature, is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 40.101).