When the wings of Bruyn’s triptych are closed, the exterior panels form a scene of the Annunciation, as the Angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will conceive a son, Jesus.

The whole exterior exhibits a feature of folding religious paintings, grisaille imitations of sculpture, which had originated a century earlier in the works of Netherlandish masters such as Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin. In Bruyn’s case the sculptures of the Virgin Mary and Archangel Gabriel are painted in brunaille, shades of brown. The slight differentiation between the brownish shades of the figures and the greyer tones of the niches suggests that the sculptures are imagined as being carved from a different kind of stone. Bruyn is imitating a device involving artistic competition; he shows that he can paint, on a flat surface, a convincing illusion of three-dimensional sculpture, thus making the actual sculptor’s art unnecessary. In addition Bruyn (or his assistant) alters his painting style here; the details are thick and unrefined in order to match what a carved figure would actually look like.

As the initial event in the story of Jesus’s life, the Annunciation is a logical and traditional subject for the exterior of Christian altarpieces. In addition, the monochromatic treatment in Bruyn’s work metaphorically suggests an earlier, or perhaps lower, level of reality compared to that of the lively full color interior.

Bruyn has also painted an unusual version of this event. Normally the Virgin Mary receives the angelic greeting from her own right (that is, good) side; here the greeting comes from the Virgin’s left (or sinister) side. When this occurs in art it is often interpreted as indicating the subservience of the Virgin to God’s will. Thus Bruyn has also envisioned the Virgin as a very simple, humble, and contained figure beside the active, elaborately clothed Angel Gabriel.

Craig Harbison
Professor Emeritus
University of Massachusetts, Amherst