Francesco Botticini (1446-1498), The Annunciation, upper section of the wings of a retable

These quarter-circular panels once formed part of a retable by Francesco Botticini (1446-1498). The scene portrayed is the Annunciation, when Mary (left) was visited by the archangel Gabriel (right) in Nazareth to give her the news that God had chosen her to bear His son. 

Francesco Botticini (1446 – 16 January 1498) was an Italian painter during the early stages of the Renaissance. He was born in Florence and worked there until his death in 1498. Although few documented pieces by Botticini exist, a significant body of works is attributed to him with certainty based on stylistic characteristics. These include a number of altar pieces, dozens of small religious panels and several portraits.

The present panels were part of the collection of Heinz Kisters in the 1960s, along with two other panels from the same retable, which showed the flagellation of Christ and Christ on the cross. 

Heinz Kisters
Heinz Kisters was an art dealer and advisor to the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer. He provided Adenauer with artworks that he attributed to Aert van der Neer, Anthonie van Dijck, Palma Vecchio, Nicolaes Maes and Bartholomaeus Bruyn. 

When Adenauer died in April 1967, his sons requested a professional appraisal of his collection by the director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. According to a journalist named Koldehoff, the collection was valued at 469,000 D-mark—far less than expected, considering that it included works by El Greco and Cranach. This valuation, which was supported by material analyses by the Doerner Institute, forced Kisters to buy back nineteen paintings for the sum of 950,000 D-mark. 


The paintings, along with other pieces from Adenauer’s collection, were auctioned at Christie’s in London. They were expected to sell for a combined total of six million D-mark, 
but only five of the thirty-six paintings on offer were sold, fetching a mere 156,000 
D-mark—although individual pieces were later auctioned at much higher prices. 

Dimensions: Mary: height 14.5 cm; width 15.3 cm; Gabriel: height 14.8 cm; width 14.5 cm;