Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

The Annunciation

Artist/Maker Marcello Venusti (Italy, ca. 1512-1579)

Date16th century

Mediumoil on panel

DimensionsSight: 15 1/8 x 11 in. (38.4 x 27.9 cm)
Framed: 17 x 21 x 3 in. (43.2 x 53.3 x 7.6 cm)

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of Maitland Smith

Terms

Object number61.056.000

DescriptionMarcello Venusti’s prestigious commission to make a small-scale copy of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in 1548 not only established his reputation in Rome, but began his long and cordial friendship with the master. Michelangelo frequently supplied his friend with drawings, usually figural studies for religious subjects, which Venusti employed in the design of his paintings, including the Lowe’s work. The Annunciation is a small-scale copy of a larger work painted by Venusti for the cathedral of Rome that was based on drawings of the subject by Michelangelo. A drawing for Venusti’s Annunciation, according to Giorgio Vasari, was given by Michelangelo’s nephew, Lionardo, after his uncle’s death to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de’ Medici. The acclaim accorded the Lateran Annunciation in sixteenth-century Rome led the artist to replicate it not only in the Lowe painting, but in several other, small-scale versions of the composition.

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