Beskrivning i Icons, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2004, kat. nr. 96:
The Annunciation
First part to middle of 17th century, Central Russia (?)
NMI 154

Wood: Spruce (Picea sp.), egg tempera
on canvas . Panel made of single board
with one spline inlaid across the panel.

Inscriptions: A) Paper label with text
in brown ink: 4 coule[..] / 140 de large;
B) Ink stamp of the Soviet State Export
Committee

PROVENANCE: Olof Aschberg;
Gift of O.Aschberg 1933
EXHIBITIONS: Gothenburg 1970, no 2;
Helsinki 1970, no 2; Herzogenburg 1977,
no 147
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kjellin 1933, no 154;
Dahlbäck 1954, pp 198, 202; Kjellin 1956,
pp 60–61, 189; Felicetti 1972, p 60, fig. 90;
Abel 1978:1, fig. 17; Egger 1987, p 16
CONSERVATION: Restored prior to entering
NM: retouches, colour on background
and borders removed; painting cleaned;
NM 1959: major blistering repaired; 1977:
detach ed ground and paint layers secured
with glue. Crack through top left part of
panel; signs of paint layer flaking and
blistering; heavy ground and paint layer
losses along borders; surface abraded; vertical
fire dam age from candle flame in lower
central part

This icon, with its elaborate urban
architecture and traditional iconogra -
phy, is somewhat provincial in char -
acter. The style in which the angel
is de picted is ultimately derived from
Byzantine originals, but both the angel
and the Mother of God present typical
Russian features. The figure drawing is
both soft and linear, the composition
clearly provincial. The catalogue of
Stift Herzogenburg, in which the icon
is dated to about 1500, terms it: ”On
the whole a very characteristic picture
of North Russian painting at the end
of the Middle Ages.”1 Kjellin takes it to
be Novgorod work of the 15th century,
while Abel 1978 indicates Yaroslavl
c. 1600. The icon probably belonged
to the Festival tier of an iconostasis.

1 “Im ganzen ein höchst charakeristisches Bild für die
nordrussische Malerei des ausgehenden Mittelalters."
Herzogenburg 1977, no 147.
[slut]