Philippe de Champaigne, 1602 - 1674
Born to a poor family in Brussels, Philippe de Champaigne moved to Paris as a young man. He became a successful painter, with rich patrons such as Cardinal Richelieu and Marie de Medici, the wife of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII of France. Mostly his paintings are portraits or pictures of religious subjects.
Find out more about Philippe de Champaigne at Wikipedia.
Annunciation c. 1644, Oil on wood, 69.2 x 70.5 cm.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Annunciation is an extremely popular subject for religious works of art and in fact this is not the only version that Philippe de Champaigne painted. It is the moment when Mary, mother of Jesus, is visited by the angel Gabriel and told she will give birth to the son of God. It is celebrated in some Christian churches on March 25th, with the Feast of Annunciation. It is described in the Bible in the book of Luke, Chapter 1, verses 26-38.
See a large image of this painting at Wikimedia Commons
|
