FRUEAUF, Rueland the Elder
(b. 1440/45, Passau, d. 1507, Passau)

The Annunciation (detail)

c. 1495
Tempera on pine panel
Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest

The shining golden line running along the hem of the garment, which follows and doubles the silhouette of the Virgin turning to the angel, is not winding; apart from minor interruptions and fresh beginnings, it gives a practically straight line. This quality of the latter is enhanced by the significant role allotted in the picture to objects of truly straight geometrical contours, as the praying-desk and the stone parapet. Obviously the painter was getting over his preference for the swirling turmoil of Late-Gothic lines and approaching the reassuring calm of the Renaissance.