Alessandro Vittoria translated into bronze the flickering light of Venetian Renaissance paintings. Working in wax (from which the finished bronze was then cast), he manipulated this relief\u2019s form and edges to catch the light. The result is a highly animated surface in which figures, drapery, clouds, and sky seem to move with excitement, heightening the drama of the archangel Gabriel\u2019s announcement that Mary will bear God\u2019s son. Fully sculpted in the round, the archangel\u2019s arm points to the scene\u2019s smallest feature: a dove, representing the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
This sculpture was commissioned by Hans Fugger, a member of a prominent Augsburg banking family, to decorate an altarpiece for the chapel of his family\u2019s castle.<\/p>\n","short_description":"Venetian artist Alessandro Vittoria translated into bronze the flickering light of Renaissance paintings. Here, the highly animated figures, drapery, clouds, and sky seem to move with excitement, heightening the drama between the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel, who has descended from heaven to announce that Mary will bear the son of God.","dimensions":"101.3 \u00d7 61.3 \u00d7 9.6 cm (39 7\/8 \u00d7 24 1\/8 \u00d7 3 3\/4 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":9,"width":61,"height":101,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Bronze","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Georg Lill, Hans Fugger (1531\u20131598) und die Kunst (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 32, 153\u201355.\n\nLeo Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer der Renaissance (Vienna, 1921), p. 501.\n\nLeo Planiscig, \"Alessandro Vittorias Verk\u00fcndigungsrelief f\u00fcr Hans Fugger,\" Jahrbuche der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 60 (1932), pp. 155\u201356, pl. XVL.\n\nLeo Planiscig, \"Alessandro Vittoria e la Pala Fugger,\" Rivista di Venezia 12,1 (1933).\n\nAdolfo Venturi, Storia dell\u2019arte Italiana X,III (Milan, 1937), pp. 70, 116, 120, fig. 89.\n\nHelen Comstock, \"Bronze Relief by Alessandro Vittoria,\" The Connoisseur 111,488 (1943), pp. 133\u201334.\n\nMeyeric R. Rogers and Oswald Goetz, \"A Masterpiece of Italian Renaissance Sculpture,\" Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 37, 1 (1943), pp. 4\u20137.\n\nFrancesco Cessi, Alessandro Vittoria, medaglista (1525\u20131608) (Trent, 1960), pp. 50\u201355, pl. 31.\n\nHans Huth, \"Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,\" Miscellanea bibliothecae hertzianae, edited by Leo Bruhns, Franz Graf, Wolff Metternich, and Ludwig Schudt (Munich, 1961), p. 518.\n\nManfred Leithe-Jasper, \"Alessandro Vittoria,\" Mitteliungen der Gesellschaft f\u00fcr veregleichende kunstforschung in Wien: Ausz\u00fcge aus kunsthistorischen Dissertationen \u00d6sterreichischer Hochschulen seit 1956 16\/17 (1963-1965), p. 32.\n\nMichael Baxandall, \"A Masterpiece by Hubert Gerhard,\" Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin 1,2 (1965), p. 8.\n\nFrancesco Cessi, \"Note sulla genesi iconografico\u2013stilistica della pala bronzea di Alessandro Vittoria per Giovanni Fugger,\" Studi trenti di scienze storiche (1965), pp. 348\u201353.\n\nAllen Wardwell and Mildred Davison, \"Three Centuries of the Decorative Arts in Italy,\" Apollo 84,55 (1966), pp. 180\u201381, 187, fig. 4.\n\nHildebrand Dussler, Reisen und Reisende in Bayerisch-Schwaben (Weissenhorn, 1968), p. 109.\n\nHans Habel, Landkreis Mindelheim (Munich, 1971), pp. 170, 186.\n\nDenys Sutton, \"Venetian Art at the Royal Academy,\" Apollo (1984), pp. 91, 95, fig. 30.\n\nMichel Hochmann, Peintres et commanditaires \u00e0 Venise, Collection de l\u2019\u00e9cole Fran\u00e7aise de Rome 155 (Rome, 1992), p. 217.\n\nAndrew John Martin, \"Quellen zum Kunsthandel um 1550\u20131600: Die Frima Ott in Venedig,\" Kunstchronik 11 (1995), p. 535.\n\nAndrew John Martin, \"Jacopo Tintoretto: Dipinti per committenti tedeschi\" Jacopo Tintoretto, nel quarto centenario della morte, edited by P. Rossi and L. Puppi (Venice, 1996), pp. 97, 99\u2013100, no. 6.\n\nClaudia Kryza-Gersch, \"New Light on Nicolo Roccatagliata and his Son Sebastian Nicolini,\" Nuovi Studi Rivista di arte Antica e Moderna (Italy, 1998), pp. 113-14, ill.\n\nAndrea Bacchi, La Scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova (Milan, 2000), p. 802, fig. 177.\n\nIan Wardropper, \"An Allegorical Bronze Statuette Newly Attributed to Ammanati,\" in Small Bronzes in the Renaissance, ed. Debra Pincus (Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 105-21, fig. 3.\n\nEnrico Maris Dal Pozzolo and Miguel Falomir, eds., Paolo Veronese (1525\u20131588), exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2025), 302, 326 cat. 50.","exhibition_history":"Northhampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, Renaissance Bronzes in American Collections, Apr. 9,\u2013May 3, 1964, cat. 17.\n\nAugsburg, Ausstellung im Rathaus, Welt im Umbruch, Augsburg zwischen Renaissance und Barock, June 28\u2013Sep. 28, 1980, cat. 577.\n\nLondon, Royal Academy of Arts, The Genius of Venice, 1500\u20131600, Nov. 25, 1983\u2013Mar. 11, 1984, cat. S42.\n\nBerlin, Alten Museum, Von allen seiten sch\u00f6n, Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock, Oct. 31, 1995\u2013Jan. 28, 1996, cat. 86.\n\nTrent, Italy, Castello del Buonconsiglio, La bellissima maniera, Alessandro Vittoria e la scultura del Cinquecento, June 25\u2013Sep. 26, 1999, cat. 84.\n\nMadrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Paolo Veronese (1525\u20131588), May 27\u2013Sep. 7, 2025, cat. 50.","provenance_text":"Commissioned by Hans Fugger from Alessandro Vittoria for the Fugger Family chapel, Schloss Kirchheim, Augsburg, 1580. Fugger family collection, Schloss Kirchheim, Augsburg, until demolition of the castle in the nineteenth century [according to Trent 1999 exh. cat.]. Fugger family collection, Augsburg, until 1908. German art market, 1930 [according to Berlin 1995\/96 exh. cat.; and Trent 1999 exh. cat.]. Dr. Preston P. Satterwhite, New York, by 1932 [see sources cited above; Planiscig 1932; and two letters from Leo Planiscig to Preston Satterwhite, 16 December 1932 and 2 March 1933, in curatorial file]. French & Co., New York, by 1942; sold to the Art Institute, 1942.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":1942,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":12.8244,"color":{"h":40,"l":52,"s":5,"percentage":0.1284170385906826,"population":1508},"latitude":41.8791970667256,"longitude":-87.6233479008077,"latlon":"41.879197066726,-87.623347900808","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 206","gallery_id":2147483633,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Sculpture","artwork_type_id":3,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":27538,"artist_title":"Alessandro Vittoria","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[27538],"artist_titles":["Alessandro Vittoria"],"category_ids":["PC-10","PC-831"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe","Essentials"],"term_titles":["relief","bronze","Renaissance","relief","religion","copper alloy","nonferrous metal","metal","inorganic material","sculpture","wings","clouds","mythological figures","Christianity","biblical","Christian subjects","angels","Virgin Mary","bronze","Italian","casting (process)","firing (heating)","sculpting","sculpture techniques","16th Century","sixteenth century","Devotion","religious","religious figures","religious scenes"],"style_id":"TM-5891","style_title":"Renaissance","alt_style_ids":["TM-13772","TM-15477"],"style_ids":["TM-5891","TM-13772","TM-15477"],"style_titles":["Renaissance","16th Century","sixteenth century"],"classification_id":"TM-164","classification_title":"relief","alt_classification_ids":["TM-13","TM-28","TM-14164"],"classification_ids":["TM-164","TM-13","TM-28","TM-14164"],"classification_titles":["relief","sculpture","bronze","Italian"],"subject_id":"TM-11421","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12759","TM-11222","TM-12704","TM-12372","TM-12337","TM-8767","TM-12268","TM-8808","TM-14366","TM-14384","TM-12554","TM-10125"],"subject_ids":["TM-11421","TM-12759","TM-11222","TM-12704","TM-12372","TM-12337","TM-8767","TM-12268","TM-8808","TM-14366","TM-14384","TM-12554","TM-10125"],"subject_titles":["religion","wings","clouds","mythological figures","Christianity","biblical","Christian subjects","angels","Virgin Mary","Devotion","religious","religious figures","religious scenes"],"material_id":"TM-2430","alt_material_ids":["TM-2694","TM-2683","TM-2568","TM-2600"],"material_ids":["TM-2430","TM-2694","TM-2683","TM-2568","TM-2600"],"material_titles":["bronze","copper alloy","nonferrous metal","metal","inorganic material"],"technique_id":"TM-4058","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3881","TM-4123","TM-12999","TM-4053"],"technique_ids":["TM-4058","TM-3881","TM-4123","TM-12999","TM-4053"],"technique_titles":["relief","casting (process)","firing (heating)","sculpting","sculpture techniques"],"theme_titles":["Essentials"],"image_id":"6e6d0abe-9881-627d-86af-98b183500b77","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["06104032-2b29-7c27-8d2f-7068f646e7ab"],"sound_ids":["06104032-2b29-7c27-8d2f-7068f646e7ab"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"The Annunciation","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1942.249"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Annunciation"],"weight":5814,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-03-09T15:19:49-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:11:39-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-07T09:37:48-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}