Oil paint on canvas
Tate collection highlights
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dante-gabriel-rossetti-461" aria-label="More by Dante Gabriel Rossetti" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</a>
Ecce Ancilla Domini Annunciation
Purchased 1886
actions: postures and motions
adults
angel
animals: birds
Annunciation
Archangel Gabriel
architecture
bed
bedroom
Bible: New Testament
chastity
crouching
domestic
dove
embroidery stand
emotional states and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fear
features
fine arts and music
fire
flying
furnishings
halo
heating and lighting
Holy Spirit - dove
individuals: female
individuals: male
interiors
light / lamp
lily
man
named individuals
natural phenomena
objects
people
plants and flowers
portraits
purity - lily
purity - white gown
religion and belief
religious
Rossetti, Christina
Rossetti, Michael
screen
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
Virgin Mary
Virgin Mary - blue drapery
Virgin Mary - red
vulnerability
window
woman
<p>In this radical reinterpretation of the Annunciation in which the angel announces to Mary that she will give birth to the Christ child, Rossetti sought a supernatural realism. Rejecting the tradition of representing the Virgin passively receiving the news, he shows her recoiling on her bed as if disturbed from sleep. Rossetti used white as the dominant colour to symbolise feminine purity, complemented by blue, a colour traditionally associated with Mary, and red, for Christ’s blood. The artist’s sister Christina posed for the Virgin and his brother William Michael for the angel.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
29 August 2001 – 25 July 2005
2005-07-25
29 August 2001
2001-08-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-29
Art and Victorian Society
Collection based display
1 October 2003 – 30 April 2004
2004-04-30
17 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-17
Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
27 February 2004 – 6 April 2004
2004-04-06
2004-02-27
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
2003-10-01
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Loan-out
1 August 2005 – 30 July 2007
2007-07-30
1 August 2005
2005-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-01
The Pre-Raphaelites
Collection based display
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
10 August 2007 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
2007-08-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-08-10
Pre-Raphaelites and Painters of the Ideal
Collection based display
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
1 June 2013 – 24 September 2018
2018-09-24
25 September 2017 – 24 September 2018
2018-09-24
2017-09-25
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2013-06-01
Reciprocal loans for Holbein, Canaletto, Wright of Derby
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019
2019-04-28
2018-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
17 October 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
1 October 2019 – 31 January 2020
2020-01-31
2019-10-01
National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk
2019-10-17
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters
Loan-out
23 February 2022 – 10 October 2022
2022-10-10
23 February 2022 – 22 May 2022
2022-05-22
2022-02-23
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
3 July 2022 – 10 October 2022
2022-10-10
2022-07-03
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
2022-02-23
The Woman in White: James McNeill Whistler, Gustave Courbet and Joanna Hiffernan
Loan-out
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
2023-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 October 2023 – 28 January 2024
2024-01-28
2023-10-21
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-04-06
The Rossettis
Exhibition
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
2023-10-01
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-10-01
Rossetti
Loan-out
Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation)
support: 724 × 419 mm
frame: 1002 × 698 × 88 mm
Purchased 1886
<div class="text">
<p>Inspired by the work of early <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/renaissance">Renaissance</a> artists such as Botticelli (1445-1510) and Fra Angelico (1387-1455), Rossetti sought in this work a radical reinterpretation of the Annunciation. Traditionally the Virgin was depicted in studious contemplation, reading a missal at a <i>prie-dieu</i>; but here Rossetti shows her rising awkwardly from a low bed, as if disturbed from sleep, while the Angel Gabriel presents her with a white lily. Both figures are dressed in white, a symbol of the virgin's purity, and the angel's role as the messenger of god is emphasised by the small white dove hovering beside him, signifying the presence of the holy spirit. Rossetti used several sitters for his figures, including his brother, William Michael, for the Angel and his sister, Christina, for the Virgin.</p>
<p>A companion piece showing the Virgin's death was planned, but never begun. This partly explains the tall narrow shape of the picture, which was intended as part of a <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/diptych">diptych</a>. Rossetti intentionally restricted his palette almost entirely to white and the three primaries. The colour blue, symbolic of heaven, is traditionally associated with the Virgin and red symbolises the blood of Christ. Rossetti even sought a red-haired model for the Virgin's head. The <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition">composition</a> is carefully thought out: the vertical division of space, made by the blue hanging and the edge of the bed, falls almost on the Golden Section. The dove and the lily, with one bud still to break, move across this division and are the instruments of conception. Rossetti has written the date, 'March', at the bottom of the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas">canvas</a>, perhaps to signify the month in which the Feast of the Annunciation is held. The original frame was also inscribed with Latin mottoes, copied from a brass rubbing owned by a fellow member of the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pre-raphaelite">Pre-Raphaelite</a> Brotherhood, F.G. Stephens (1828-1907).</p>
<p>The picture was exhibited at the National Institution in 1850 and heavily criticised, partly for its didacticism. The critic for the <i>Athenaeum </i>wrote that it was 'a work evidently thrust by the artist into the eye of the spectator more with the presumption of a teacher than in the modesty of a hopeful and true aspiration after excellence.' (20 April 1850, p.424) Rossetti vowed never to exhibit in public again, but he continued to work on his picture until 1853, when it was sold to Francis McCracken of Belfast, an early patron of the Pre-Raphaelites, for £50.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.72-3; reproduced p.72, in colour.<br/>Elizabeth Prettejohn, <i>The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites</i>, London 2000, pp.50-1, reproduced p.50, in colour.<br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) - A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, pp.12-13, no.44, reproduced pl.29.</p>
<p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
</div>

Summary
2019-01-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>In this radical reinterpretation of the Annunciation in which the angel announces to Mary that she will give birth to the Christ child, Rossetti sought a supernatural realism. Rejecting the tradition of representing the Virgin passively receiving the news, he shows her recoiling on her bed as if disturbed from sleep. Rossetti used white as the dominant colour to symbolise feminine purity, complemented by blue, a colour traditionally associated with Mary, and red, for Christ’s blood. The artist’s sister Christina posed for the Virgin and his brother William Michael for the angel.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults angel animals: birds Annunciation Archangel Gabriel architecture bed bedroom Bible: New Testament chastity crouching domestic dove embroidery stand emotional states and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fear features fine arts and music fire flying furnishings halo heating and lighting Holy Spirit - dove individuals: female individuals: male interiors light / lamp lily man named individuals natural phenomena objects people plants and flowers portraits purity - lily purity - white gown religion and belief religious Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Michael screen symbols and personifications universal religious imagery Virgin Mary Virgin Mary - blue drapery Virgin Mary - red vulnerability window woman