On June 17, the Old Masters department of Aguttes will have the pleasure to bring to market an extraordinary and hitherto unseen Annunciation from the Venetian Quattrocento. Probably made around 1443, it is the work of the painters Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna and it belongs to a body of work testifying to the major developments in Gothic painting towards the Renaissance.

 

Antonio VIVARINI, known as Antonio da MURANO and Giovanni D'ALEMAGNA
Murano, c. 1415 – 1466/1484, Venice; Venice, 1411 - 1450, Padua
The Annonciation
Tempera on wood panel and gilded stucco 
Circa 1443
98 x 90 cm
 


Antonio Vivarini & Giovanni d’Alemagna

Antonio Vivarini was born in Murano around 1415. Although his precise year of birth is not known, the Vivarini family of glassmakers is documented between Murano and Padua from the second half of the 14th century. Antonio's activity as a painter is precisely attested from 1440, the year in which he signed and dated a polyptych commissioned for the Euphrasian church of Poreč/Parenza, then attached to the Republic of Venice.
 
It is immediately after this year that he began his collaboration with his brother-in-law, Giovanni d'Alemagna (or Ulma, named after the city of Ulm in Germany). They worked together until his death in the late 1450s. The first work to come out of their collaboration - an altarpiece dedicated to St. Jerome for the church of San Stefano in Venice - can be seen today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Among the duo's most beautiful creations is the high altar of the chapel of San Tarazio for the church of San Zaccaria in Venice, dated from 1443 and still visible in situ.
 
After Giovanni's death, Antonio collaborated with his brother Bartolomeo before they were joined by his son, Alvise. It is likely that their collaboration, as fruitful as the previous one, continued until Antonio's death between 1466 and 1484.

The Venetian Quattrocento: artistic emulation & “avant-gardism”

Regarding this fusional collaboration between Vivarini and d'Alemagna, it is still difficult today to understand the exact terms of this cooperation and even to distinguish the work of one from the other in their common works. However, it seems that two tendencies emerged, each inspired by the work of a major artist of the Venetian Quattrocento: Iacopo Bellini (active between 1424 and 1470). Iacopo Bellini was the founder of one of the most important dynasties of Venetian artists of the 15th century, and a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370 - 1427). He was one of the first to participate in the pictorial transition from the Gothic style to the Renaissance. Although the term may seem anachronistic, his work is indeed "avant-garde" because in some of his notebooks, the drawings attest to his research on the development of perspective.

It is not necessary to specify that at this time, Venice was a true fertile ground for artists who rubbed shoulders and did get inspired by each other. In this context of artistic emulation, Iacopo's drawings have inspired Antonio and Giovanni in different ways. Thus, the former developed a taste for clear and purified compositions, while the latter was interested by elaborate settings with rich decorations and architectural ornaments.
 
Later, it was the turn of Iacopo Bellini's son, Giovanni (c. 1432 - 1516), and his son-in-law Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506), to be inspired by the work of Vivarini and Alemagna and their avant-gardism.
  
 
The Annunciation

The innovative aspect can be found in the illusionist structure of space made by feigned architecture in perspective. Moreover, the golden background inherited from the international Gothic style has been abandoned. The buildings that one distinguishes behind the wall, were probably visible in Padua or Venice.
 
It is with delight that we let our gaze wander through the rich iconography where each element is significant. The little white rabbits on the left and the enclosed garden hidden behind the central column evoke virginal purity. This central column, impressive by its construction, represents Incarnation. It is the structural intermediary between God the Father and the dove of the Holy Spirit which is sent to touch Mary with his grace. The angel is the herald of the divine who will become man among men. On earth, he will be the good shepherd leading his sheep, whose flock is represented on the left; and whose destiny is to die for them on the Cross of Mount Golgotha, represented perhaps by the high hill in the right arcade. Discreet but eminently present, Resurrection is suggested by the peacock, an animal whose feathers fall and grow back each year, and whose eyespots suggest the gaze of God Most High from East to West.
If this enumeration of symbols is not exhaustive, it suggests a whole iconographic and perhaps iconological discourse to study.
 
Regarding the context of its creation, several elements suggest that the work was made for private devotion, at the request of a rich patron. Its dimension, although important, remains modest for a pala or a church altarpiece and suggests a private context. Moreover, the contemporary fame of the two painters, the richness of the materials used, including the stucco of the feigned architecture gilded with fine gold, attest to the wealthy context in which the painting was produced.
 
In light of its workmanship, its context of creation and its state of conservation, this Annunciation by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna appears as an exceptional artwork and a dazzling legacy of Venetian painting of the Quattrocento.
The department is pleased to collaborate with art historian Mattia Vinco. He has agreed to conduct in-depth research on the artwork and to write the scientific note that will be published in the auction catalog. The publication will be available online as soon as June 1st .