The Virgin Annunciate

The original dimensions of this work may have exceeded 300 x 400cm. This fragment was apparently found in a Spanish convent, and the style of the Virgin's halo suggests that it was made in Valencia. Stylistically, it is based upon Netherlandish paintings of the mid-fifteenth century, which were exported in considerable numbers to Spain and Portugal. Flemish paintings were also copied by German engravers, whose prints disseminated their imagery throughout Western Europe. As a result, most Spanish painters of the later fifteenth century worked in styles which were essentially of Flemish derivation. This is a significant example of the once common but now rare Late Medieval genre of painting in grisaille on cloth.