Angel of the Annunciation

Artist Sano di Pietro Italian, 1405 - 1481

Dateca. 1450

Place of OriginSiena, Tuscany, Italy

MediumTempera on panel on gilt punchworked ground

DimensionsPanel: 14 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (36.8 × 34.3 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 20 5/8 x 19 in. (52.4 x 48.3 cm)
Panel: 15 3/8 × 14 3/16 × 1 3/16 in. (39 × 36 × 3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde

Object number1971.44

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Paintings & Sculpture

DescriptionSano di Pietro was a highly productive and popular painter in fifteenth-century Siena, producing frescoes, manuscript illuminations, and panel paintings, including both small devotional works and large, multi-paneled polyptychs. This small panel of a half-length angel Gabriel almost certainly was originally part of the upper section of such a polyptych, located symmetrically opposite an equally-sized and -shaped panel of a half-length Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. It depicts the moment Gabriel delivers God’s message to Mary that she will bear the son of God. Gabriel’s right hand points upward, likely gesturing towards now lost images of God the father in the top pinnacle and/or the dove of the Holy Spirit, while his left hand holds an olive branch. A long fabric band crosses over the angel’s chest and down under his belt, the ends fluttering decoratively to either side.

At some time the panel’s size and shape may have been altered. Several painted elements—the angel’s wings, halo, and olive branch—continue beyond the panel’s edge, and the panel’s top is truncated horizontally instead of rising to a more typical pointed arch. Complicating this suggestion, however, is what may be the original pendant "Virgin Annunciate" panel. First identified in the Gnecco Collection, Genoa, in 1926, its nearly identical shape and size suggest the truncated shape of The Hyde "Angel" is original. Maximillian Hernandez first proposed the identification of the Genoa painting with the missing "Virgin Annunciate," and more recently Christopher Daly proposed the same pairing. He notes the two panels share a similar style, shape, and state of condition and possibly identical punchwork designs. He reports the work was sold in 2003 at il Ponte, Milan, but its current location is unknown.

The angel wears a garland of olive leaves, matching those on the branch in his left hand. Olive branches symbolize peace and refer to the salvation of Noah’s family at the end of the flood, marked by the appearance of a dove bearing an olive branch (Genesis 8.11). Other Sienese Annunciations depict Gabriel bearing an olive branch and garland, as in Simone Martini’s "Annunciation" of 1333 (Uffizi, Florence), rather than the more common tradition for the Annunciate angel to carry white lilies. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, another Sienese artist, includes prominent olive branches in his 1338 "Good and Bad Government" fresco cycle (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena), where the central allegorical figure of Peace (Pax) holds an olive branch and wears a garland of olive leaves as well.

The panel’s background is fully gilded, with elaborate punchwork visible in the angel’s wings and especially in his halo. Such decorative effects are typical of Sano’s style, as are his bright colors. The attribution to Sano di Pietro seems secure, partially because Mojmír Frinta identified punch marks in the angel’s halo as matching those in other works by the artist.

Above text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, February 2026

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This is almost certainly the left half of an altarpiece, that would have had the Virgin Mary in an opposing panel on the right. The angel is drawn at somewhat longer than half-length. The right hand is held upright n front of the torsos the left holds an olive branch, representative of the branch returned to Noah by the dove indicating that dry land could be found and thus symbolizing salvation. The angel's robe has a contrasting band of trim that flows into a long serpentine banderole, especially on the right side of the field below the olive branch. The ground is ornamented with punchwork including an elaborate halo, all of which is gilt.

The top of the panel, which was likely a pointed "Gothic" arch is missing.

Text from 2012Exhibition History"Loan Exhibition of Italian Paintings from the XIV to the XVI Centuries," Detroit Institue of the Arts, Detroit, MI, March 8- 30, 1933.

"Objects of Devotion", Hoopes Galllery, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, Nov. 30, 2003- Feb. 29, 2004.ProvenanceBerlin, Germany, Dr. Rudolph Grosse (art historian)
by 1933, New York, NY, Dr. S. F. Aram
1933, Glens Falls, NY, Mr. and Mrs. Louis F. Hyde
1963, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust (Bequest of Mrs. Charlotte P. Hyde)