The Annunciation
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The Annunciation (commonly the Friedsam Annunciation) is a c. 1445 oil-on-oak panel painting usually attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Petrus Christus (d. 1476). It shows the biblical annunciation, marking the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to Mary that she will conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ.
The panel contains a number of perspective and spatial anomalies that make it especially complex. The viewer has a bird's eye view, the framing is slightly left-of-centre, while the lack of a view of a horizon indicates that it was somewhat unskilfully cut down on three sides from a larger painting: art historians generally assume that it is a remnant of the left-hand wing of a triptych altarpiece.
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The painting's attribution has been widely disputed since the early 20th century, with some art historians disputing Christus' authorship and, mainly on stylistic grounds, arguing for either Hubert van Eyck or his brother Jan van Eyck, with some giving a date as early as 1420. The panel was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1931 by the businessman and art collector Michael Friedsam.
