Verkündigung

Jan van Eyck painted this Annunciation in Flanders around 1435, when oil paint in his hands could do things no one had seen before, catching the gleam of tiles, brass, and the coloured light falling through a church window. The angel Gabriel greets Mary inside that painted church, and van Eyck loads the setting with quiet meaning, the floor tiles and wall scenes carrying Old Testament stories that point to the moment. For centuries it hung in Russia, bought by the tsars for the Hermitage in St Petersburg. In 1930 Stalin's government, short of hard currency, quietly sold off Hermitage masterpieces, and the American financier Andrew Mellon bought this one. He gave it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which he founded, where it hangs now.