The Announcing Angel, Vincenzo Carducci (florence, 1576 – Madrid, 1638)

The announcing angel
Vincenzo Carducci, known in Spain as Vicente Carducho
(Florence, 1576 – Madrid, 1638)

Oil on canvas
77 x 62 cm.
Antique gilded wood frame 92 x 78 cm.

Full details (click HERE)

The proposed work, characterised by a refined sacredness, shows the Archangel Gabriel in the act of making the supreme announcement to the Virgin, offering her the canonical white lilies, symbol of purity and chastity: it is a splendid subject, realised with great stylistic quality, probably commissioned for private use and therefore particularly pleasant and easy to place.

The Angel has the appearance of a young man of ethereal beauty, with delicate features, wrapped in a white tunic and a red cloak brocaded with gold with soft drapes, all characterised by an intense classicism, where a balanced composition directs the observer's attention to the angelic face.

The painting is attributed to the painter Vincenzo Carducci (1576 – 1638), a native of Florence who moved to Spain in 1585 with his older brother Bartolomeo, following Federico Zuccari, who had been invited by King Philip II. Here the painter quickly achieved a position of prestige, with a naturalistic inclination typical of the Tuscan figurative culture of the end of the century, but further enriched by Venetian influences.

In his works we see a beautiful fusion between the tenets of the Italian Renaissance art theory and those that arose from the practice of the same in Madrid in the Baroque era.

His creations constituted an absolute reference model, a paradigm of a pictorial style that was balanced but surprising in all its components (design, colour, composition, iconography), making it an undisputed point of reference in the Spanish art scene.

Carducci, or Carducho as he was later called in Spain, shows here a pictorial style that we can find in other works of his; among all of them, the paintings of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Agnes (details image 1-2, Prado Museum) as well as the Annunciation (details image 3, Prado Museum) are particularly worth mentioning.
Link:

imm-1 https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/saint-catherine/de1a4e3f-85b3-49e0-af1e-63c2...

imm-2 https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/saint-agnes/177b8a10-9408-45fd-bfaa-02a7075f...

imm-3 https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-annunciation/ad20d106-36c2-487f-9027-94b...

The very fine features of the angel's face, here in a three-quarter portrait, are exemplary of the grace of the painter's models that we find in the three works mentioned above. He was known for his altarpieces, his marvellous sacred paintings, but also for his talent as a portrait painter, giving the angel the appearance of a delightful young girl, following the dictates that the ideal of beauty and perfection were identified with the female face.

The conservation conditions of the work appear excellent, perfectly restored; the pictorial layer does not present any type of problem.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is sold complete with a pleasant antique frame from the 1600s and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic card.

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