The Annunciation (David)

The angel Gabriel sweeps in, wings still raised, one hand lifted in greeting and the other gripping a scepter wound with the scroll of his salutation to Mary (Luke 1:26-38). This is only half the scene: the Virgin received the message on a companion panel, the two now hung as a pair. Gerard David, the last great master of Bruges after Memling, paints the heavy blue and shot-silk drapery and the tiled Flemish room with the patient precision of an old Netherlandish tradition already a century deep. The collection follows the Annunciation across many hands, from Simone Martini to Leonardo and Antonello - here it is given to the angel alone.