The Annunciation

Jean Hey, (the Master of Moulins) · 1490–95

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

72.5 × 50.1 cm (28 1/2 × 19 11/16 in.); Framed: 86.3 × 65.4 cm (34 × 25 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

Jean Hey's *The Annunciation* radiates a stillness that feels both celestial and intimate, its figures suspended in a moment of quiet revelation rendered with extraordinary delicacy. Hey, long known only as the Master of Moulins, was the leading court painter in late fifteenth-century France, working under the patronage of the Dukes of Bourbon. His style draws deeply from the Flemish tradition — precise draughtsmanship, luminous flesh tones, fabrics that seem to hold actual weight — while carrying a French restraint and psychological inwardness that sets him apart from his Flemish contemporaries. In this panel, the angel and the Virgin occupy the scene with a composed gravity that speaks to his gift for conveying theological weight through purely visual means. The artist's identity remained a scholarly mystery for centuries; he was known only by the city associated with his masterwork until a signed painting helped establish the name Jean Hey in the twentieth century. This hand-painted oil reproduction follows the original panel closely, preserving the soft gradations of light, the jewel-like palette, and the meditative quality that makes Hey's work so enduring — a faithful rendering that brings one of the finest works of the late Gothic tradition into a domestic setting.