The Annunciation composed of the two canvases of the announcing Angel and the announced Madonna are one of the most interesting acquisitions of the Capuchin Museum. Entered into the museum's layout in 2017, they come from the current convent of the Capuchin Friars Minor of Brescia, which arrived there from their original location: the church of the second Capuchin convent in Brescia, dedicated to Saints Peter and Marcellin. The two canvases were part of the decorative apparatus of the church consecrated in 1601 and completed in 1614. Some of the most important local painters had contributed to the decoration; Jacopo Palma is among these artists, and he is responsible for several works including, in fact, an Annunciation composed of two canvases placed on the partition of the choir on the sides of the altarpiece.
There are no doubts for the attribution as well as for the signature, […] COBVS PALMA. P., -apposited at the bottom left in the canvas of the Madonna Annunciata-, also by some typical stylistic and technical features that distinguished his workshop. Among these, the use of a diagonal canvas, visible to the naked eye in various points (the incarnates in the hands of the Virgin or in the face of the Angel) or the use of particular pigments such as lapis lazuli with which many have been painted parts of blue.
The subject of the Annunciation is one of the most visited. It is with the large paintings (Scuola Grande di San Teodoro in Venice) that the two canvases have stylistic data in common. On the other hand, a certain compositional proximity, as regards the figure of the angel alone, is found in later works such as the Venetian Annunciation of S. Maria dei Derelitti of around 1615, and even more with the altarpiece of the cathedral of Salò ( Brescia) of 1628: similar is the posture of the angel who similarly crosses the advancing leg and holds the flowered lily branch with his left hand.
Precisely for the angel, a clear reference can be found in a drawing kept at the Correr Museum in Venice: characterized by precious shoes with gold trimmings and cherub head, by the dress with a wide band on the chest, by the brooch that closes the slit of the robes. . The gesture of blessing (translation of the angel's greeting to Mary) makes him a figure of extreme delicacy, combined with a sweet expression rendered with a slight smile with lowered eyes.
In the same sheet there are two studies for the announcing Angel and two tests for the Virgin Mary. The face of the Virgin derives from the same cartoon with which the Madonna of the altarpiece was made already in the Capuchin church of Gargnano. The counterpart to the altarpiece which today is kept in external storage at the church of San Marco in Milan (which arrived in the Napoleonic era as a requisition for the nascent Brera art gallery) is very interesting.
Title: Annunciation Angel (pendant)
Author: Jacopo Negretti, detto Palma il Giovane
Date: XVI-XVII century
Technique: Oil painting on canvas
Displayed in: Capuchin Museum
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