The Annunciation

religious

Towards 1400 the court of Burgundy was an important centre of art. Commissioned by Philippe the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Melchior Broederlam, a native of Ypres - who, from 1384 onwards, served the Duke as "peintre et valet de chambre" - undertook the paintings on the lavishly decorated altar of the Carthusian monastery of Champmol. Left of centre the Virgin, seated at a lectern in a Gothic porch with traceried windows placed diagonally across the picture and leading to an elaborately designed building set behind it, listens to the words of the angel.

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About the Artist

Melchior Broederlam

Netherlandish painter, court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, from 1387. Documents show that he was a busy and versatile artist, but his only surviving works are two wings from an altarpiece representing The Annunciation and Visitation and The Presentation and Flight into Egypt (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 1394-9). They are among the first and finest examples of International Gothic, combining lavish decorative display with realistic touches that look forward to the later development of the Netherlandish School. The figure of St Joseph in The Flight into Egypt, for example, is represented as an authentic peasant.

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