{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156196"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156196/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EM3115/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EM3115/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EM3115","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O156196/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156196","accessionNumber":"4847-1856","objectType":"Relief","titles":[{"title":"The Virgin Annunciate","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This carved oak relief shows the Virgin Mary from an Annunciation scene, and was made in ca. 1350-1360 in Lower Saxony, Germany. Together with three other reliefs now also at the V&amp;A, it originally belonged to a winged altarpiece in the Johanneskirche in Lüneburg, which was dismantled in 1856.\r\n\r\nIn its centre, this altarpiece probably displayed a sculpture showing the Coronation of the Virgin, which now is in the Museum Lüneburg. Two other figures belonging to the altarpiece are now preserved at the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, and one is still displayed in the Johanneskirche itself. It is likely that the relief of the Virgin Mary and its three companion pieces at the V&amp;A, all remarkably shallow, once decorated the altarpiece's wings.\r\n\r\nWinged altarpieces were especially popular North of the Alps. They usually consisted of a central shrine and a set of two or more movable wings. These allowed not only for closing and opening the shrine, but also for including more images, which could be displayed in different ways.","physicalDescription":"This carved oak relief shows the standing figure of The Virgin Annunciate. The Virgin, rendered with long hair and floating robes, raises her right hand in a gesture of acceptance, and holds a small book in her left. The carving has lost much of its original colouring, but traces of original gilding as well as later blue overpainting are visible on her robes. The back of the relief is hollowed out, and the figure has a plugged circular bore-hole in the top of the head.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved oak with traces of colouring and gilding","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Medieval and renaissance","id":"THES271264"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[{"text":"Gothic (Medieval)","id":"AAT20775"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2010EM3115"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"26","id":"THES49836"},"free":"","case":"WN","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Relief, The Virgin Annunciate","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Lower Saxony","id":"x29714"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1350-60","earliest":"1345-01-01","latest":"1360-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"4848-1856","id":"O156205"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"4845-1856","id":"O93025"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"4846-1856","id":"O156183"},"association":"Set"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"77.47","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"23","unit":"cm","qualifier":"maximum","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"maximum","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This relief is one of a group of four owned by the museum. The other three show Saint James the Greater (mus. no. 4845-1856), Saint Simon (mus. no. 4846-1856) and the Archangel Gabriel (mus. no. 4848-1856). Together with the Virgin Annunciate, the latter must have formed an Annunciation scene. The reliefs originally belonged to a now dismantled altarpiece in the  Johanneskirche in Lüneburg. Much of the church interior was sold and dispersed in 1856, the same year the V&amp;A bought the four reliefs - perhaps at a sale in London  at Phillips, New Bond Street, on 27 June 1856 (lot 88, described as 'Four gothic figures of Saints'). ","historicalContext":"It is likely that the relief of the Virgin Annunciate and its three companion pieces at the V&amp;A, all remarkably shallow, once decorated the wings of the altarpiece in  the Johanneskirche in Lüneburg. In its centre, the altarpiece probably displayed a sculpture showing the Coronation of the Virgin, which now is in the Museum  Lüneburg, flanked by a sculpture of Saint John the Evangelist which is still kept in the Johanneskirche itself. Two further reliefs once belonging to the altarpiece and showing Saint Bartholomew and a saintly abbot are now at the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover. \n\nStylistically, the group is closely linked to the carved reliefs decorating the choirstalls in the cathedrals of Bremen and Magdeburg, which are now generally dated to  the mid-fourteenth century.","briefDescription":"Relief, The Virgin Annunciate, carved oak with traces of colouring and gilding, Lower Saxony (probably), ca. 1350-1360","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Catalogue of the Finely Inlaid Oak & Sculptured  Marble Fittings of The Church of St. John, at Luneberg [sic!], Comprising The Staircase for the Pulpit, Carved Frames & Monuments, Doors, Friezes, Panellng &c</u>. Auction Catalogue, Mr. Phillips, New Bond Street, 27 June 1856 (London: J. Davy & Sons, 1856), p. 5, lot  88"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'Objects Acquired in the Year 1856', in I<u>nventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition</u>. Vol I: <u>For the Years 1852 to the End of 1867</u> (London: Printed by George E. Eyre and   William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868), p. 24"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Habicht, Victor Curt. <u>Niedersächsische Kunst in England</u> (Hannover: Edler &amp; Krische, 1930), pp. 88-91"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Reinecke, Helmut. 'Einige wenig bekannte Meisterwerke niedersächsischer Skulptur der Gotik',  <u>Pantheon</u> 27 (1941): 64-67"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"von der Osten, Gert. <u>Katalog der Bildwerke in der niedersächsischen Landesgalerie Hannover</u> (Munich: Bruckmann Verlag, 1957), pp. 60-61, cat nos 41-42"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Sommer, Johannes. 'Die sieben Figuren von Satemin: Fragmente eines vermutlich gegen 1340 in Lüneburg geschnitzten Flügelaltars', <u>Niederdeutsche Beiträge  zur Kunstgeschichte</u> 3 (1964): 275-84, pls 216-19"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Löhr, Alfred. 'Das Chorgestühl im Dom zu Bremen', <u>Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte</u> 3 (1974): 123-80, pp. 163-66"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Williamson, Paul and Evelyn, Peta. <u>Northern Gothic Sculpture 1200-1450</u> (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988), pp. 146-51, cat.nos. 41-44"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Porstmann, Gisbert. <u>Das Chorgestühl des Magdeburger Domes: Ikonographie, Stilgeschichte, Deutung</u> (Berlin: Lukas Verlag, 2008), pp. 188-201, pp. 194-95"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Wolf, Norbert. <u>Deutsche Schnitzretabel des 14. Jahrhunderts</u> (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 2002), p. 312"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Alvers, Annett. 'Eine Dreikönigsgruppe des 14. Jahrhunderts aus St. Marien zu Stendal. Ein Beitrag zum frühen Altarretabel in der Altmark', in <u>Die Kunst des Mittelalters in der Mark Brandenburg: Tradition,  Transformation, Innovation</u>, ed. Ernst Badstübner et al. (Berlin: Lukas Verlag, 2008), 188-201, pp. 194-95"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Virgin Annunciate","id":"N5281"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"The Annunciation","id":"V449"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["4847-1856"],"accessionNumberNum":"4847","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1856,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-30","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-18","availableToBook":false}}