Tapestry with the Annunciation
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The angel Gabriel kneels at the left, his enormous gold-and-gray wings spread wide, holding a scepter topped with a cross. A banderole with Latin text unfurls between him and the Virgin Mary, who sits inside an architectural structure at the right, her hands raised in prayer, an open book before her. She wears a deep blue mantle over a lighter gown. Behind Gabriel, a dense garden of flowering plants fills the left side — roses, lilies, and other blooms woven in reds, blues, pinks, and greens against a dark ground. Above, God the Father appears in a radiant burst at the upper left, and the dove of the Holy Spirit descends from the upper right. A decorated vase of lilies suggesting purity sits at the base of the dividing wall. The tapestry was likely woven in Arras or Tournai — the two dominant centers of Northern European tapestry production in the early fifteenth century. The cartoon may have been designed by Melchior Broederlam, court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Wool and metallic thread tapestry, South Netherlandish, c. 1410–20.