Bartholomäus Zeitblom (1455/1460–1518/1522)
»The Annunciation«

1496, Tempera and oil on wood

Like its companion piece »The Visitation of the Virgin«, this painting comes from the parish church in Eschach near Gaildorf. They formed the interior wing panels of a three-part altar, from which the carved central shrine with its life-sized figures of the Madonna and Child, crowned by angels, and the two Johns has been preserved at its original location. The figures are depicted in a pure state of being, without reference to action and without any sign of interaction through eye contact. The painting is characterised by a high degree if stylisation, an attribute regarded as a paradigm of the late Gothic painting of the Ulm School. [ EW ]