





Marco Palmezzano(Forli 1460-1539)The Annunciation
Sold for £32,000 inc. premium
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Marco Palmezzano (Forli 1460-1539)
oil on canvas, most probably transferred from panel, arched top
218.3 x 175.5cm (85 15/16 x 69 1/8in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The Collection of Baron Blanc, Château de Chancy, near Chambéry
Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1907
Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 1927
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 30 May 1991, lot 19
Private Collection, California
The Collection of Roy T. Eddleman, USA
Having completed his initial training with Melozzo da Forli, Marco Palmezzano, a native of Forli, then moved to Rome in the early 1490s. He later spent some time in Venice but then returned to Forli where he spent the rest of his long career carrying out many commissions in the area.
At some point between 1927 and the 1991 sale at Sotheby's, the upper edge of the present canvas has been cut down to form an arched shape.
The present Annunciation comes closest to the artist's altarpiece of circa 1512 for the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Forli and now in the Pinacoteca Civica (oil on panel, inv. no. 41). Both works see the two figures set before an arch, decorated with gold ground scrolling grotesques. Through the arch an expansive mountainous landscape is visible and the dove of the Holy Spirit is centrally placed high above the Virgin and Angel.