''Annunciation'' is a bronze relief of the

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

Alessandro Vittoria Alessandro Vittoria funerary monument, San Zaccaria, Venice Alessandro Vittoria (1525 – 27 May 1608) was an Italian Mannerist sculptor of the Venetian school, "one of the main representatives of the Venetian classical style" and rivalling ...

, created ''c.'' 1583. It is now in the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

. Produced using the lost wax method, it was commissioned by

Hans Fugger Hans Fugger ''von der Lilie'', full name ''Hans, Freiherr Fugger, Herr zu Kirchheim, Glött, Mickhausen, Stettenfels und Schmiechen'', (4 September 1531 – 19 April 1598; buried in Kirchheim in Schwaben) was a German arts patron, businessman an ...

for his family chapel at Schloss Kirchheim in

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

. It remained in the

Fugger family The House of Fugger () is a German family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patrician (post-Roman Europe), patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile ban ...

collection until 1908 and was bought by its present owner in 1942.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Annunciation 1580s sculptures Sculptures in the Art Institute of Chicago Vittoria