Angel Of The Annunciation, Italian School XVII, Ec. Or Workshop Of Alessandro Allori (1535-1607)

Angel of the Annunciation, 17th century Italian school, Florentine, school or workshop of Alessandro Allori (1535 - 1607) Oil on panel (walnut) Work produced by a 17th century Florentine artist, probably in the entourage of the painter Alessandro Allori ( 1535 - 1607), son of Bronzino, who executed several versions of this devotional subject, a miraculous image much appreciated and collected during the Counter-Reformation, inspired by the Annunciation of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence, a famous anonymous fresco dating from the Trecento . Allori will produce a derivation of this fresco, as well as versions of smaller formats by his studio or himself, refocusing on the diptych portrait of the two characters in the fresco; separately producing a portrait of the angel and the Virgin Mary as in the version attributed to Allori kept by the Nantes Museum where the wings of the angel do not appear – as in our painting. Several artists from the end of the 16th century to the 17th century dealt with this subject, but it was Alessandro Allori's workshop that produced the greatest number of versions. Note the excellent recovery of this subject by the artist Carlo Dolci in the collections of the Louvre Museum, produced around 1653-55, after the Counter-Reformation (1545 – 1648), in an already more profane representation, the touch very realistic, the attention being on the goldsmithery of the tunic. Beautifully crafted, our version remains faithful to the Trecento fresco but also to Allori's Annunciation, the angel's hands remaining concealed in the tunic. The crowned diadem. The radiant halo of the angel, the sober tunic but hemmed in gold, is also very close to the fresco as to the Annunciation by Allori. The treatment of this subject in our work is, however, in our view, finer and more accomplished than the known versions of Allori's studio, produced in a palette that evokes the freshness of the colorist artists of the Renaissance while remaining more faithful to the original from the Trecento, dress in a pearly pink, tunic in an intense almond green. The finesse of the angel's features, the quality of the hand of this unidentified 17th century Florentine artist suggest a master. The emotion that emanates from the graceful alabaster face of the angel captures the lover of ancient art without the filter of an allegorical religious staging that could have weakened the reception of this work, its incredible modernity.

Dimensions: 32 cm x 24 cm (panel only) - Framed: 48 cm x 40 cm Former collection iron mark on the back of the work: ADB. Blackened wooden frame, probably period
Condition report: very good overall condition.