Master of the Annunciation of Aix

Master of the Annunciation of Aix (Barthélemy d'Eyck): Annunciation altar (reconstruction of the preserved parts), France 1443–1444

The late Gothic painter, whose name is not certain , who painted an Annunciation around 1442 or 1445, is referred to as the Master of the Annunciation of Aix ( French Maître de l'Annonciation d'Aix ), occasionally Master of the Annunciation Altar of Aix , ( Master of Aix ) painted on Mary for the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral in Aix-en-Provence in France. It was the middle picture of a triptych , the side wings of which represent two prophets. The triptych was dismantled during the French Revolution to save it from destruction. The picture of the Annunciation is now in the Maria Magdalenen Church in Aix, the wing pictures are distributed in various museums in Amsterdam, Brussels and Rotterdam.

The Annunciation of Aix, one of the important paintings from the 15th century north of the Alps, shows the influence of painting from Italy as well as from France or Flanders . After various identifications had been proposed, the opinion has now gained acceptance that the painter, who was known in the first half of the 20th century under the emergency name Master of the Annunciation of Aix , was Barthélemy d'Eyck from Flanders, who worked in France . A controversial attribution of the work to Niccolo Colantonio from Naples in Italy had previously been attempted, as well as an attribution to the French Jean Chapus, painter in the service of the court in Anjou .

The master of the Annunciation by Aix is a contemporary of Jan van Eyck and Stefan Lochner and like them a representative of a new soft style in painting. In addition to the increasingly three-dimensional painted clothing and the drapery, which is typical for this style, the spatiality of the representation of the architecture, e.g. B. the rows of columns, a special feature of the Annunciation image by Aix.

literature

• L. Demonts: Le Maître de l'Annonciation d'Aix, des van Eyck à Antonello de Messine. In: Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne 53, 1928
• L. van Puyvelde: L'Enigme du Maître de "l'Annonciation" d'Aix-en-Provence . In: Gazette des Beaux-Arts October 1954, pp. 145ff.
• N. Reynaud: Barthélemy d'Eyck avant 1450 . In: Revue de l'art 84, 1989, pp. 22-43
• J. Białostocki: L'art du XVe siècle des Parler à Dürer . Paris 1993
• Master of the Annunciation of Aix . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 37 : Master with emergency names and monogramists . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1950, p. 342 .
• Kindler's painting dictionary . Volumes 1–6, Kindler Verlag, Zurich 1964–1971.