 The Annunciation is an oil @-@ on @-@ oak panel painting attributed to the Early Netherlandish master Hans Memling . Completed c . 1482 , it was partially transferred to canvas in the 1920s and is today held in the Robert Lehman collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York . It shows the Virgin in a domestic interior , two attendant angels , the archangel Gabriel dressed in rich ecclesiastical robes , and a hovering dove . The painting is based and expands upon the Annunciation wing of Rogier van der Weyden 's c . 1455 Saint Columba altarpiece . The Virgin simultaneously swoons and foreshadows the crucifixion . According to art historian Maryan Ainsworth , the work presents a " startlingly original image , rich in connotations for the viewer or worshiper . " The simple iconography centers on the Virgin 's purity ; the Incarnation , the Virgin as mother and her role as bride and Queen of Heaven . 
