The Annunciation

Rubens had just come home to Antwerp after eight years in Italy when he began this Annunciation around 1610, newly established and buried in commissions. He painted the right-hand side, with the angel Gabriel still hovering in the air, then set the panel aside unfinished and left it for close to 18 years. Only near 1628, by now a wealthy and celebrated man, did he come back to complete it and rework the figure of Mary. He set the scene in an ordinary room rather than a temple. On the table stand a vase of flowers and a sewing basket, and near Mary's feet a cat lies asleep straight through the miraculous visit. This was the very first painting by Rubens that his old Antwerp house, now a museum, managed to acquire.