Annunciation Triptych ( Merode Altarpiece)
Robert Campin
ROBERT CAMPIN, c.1430. OIL ON OAK
One of the fathers of the Northern Renaissance, Campin’s Annunciation Triptych is amongst the most celebrated works of Netherlandish painting. A deeply allegorical work, it is architectural in its layout with each panel a window into a different room across the same house. In the central panel, the angel Gabriel is about to tell the Virgin Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus. The room Campin painted is based on the living room of the donor who commissioned the painting. This same donor kneels at the doorway in the left hand panel, his wife stood behind them and on the right-hand panel Joseph drills holes in a board in his carpentry studio. The altarpiece was intended for private prayer, a prayer for the hopes of a child for the couple. Campin’s vignettes bring the holy down to earth, the scenes are recognisable in their exquisite detail but otherworldly in their figures.