The support is an oak panel consisting of two horizontally grained planks, and is slightly bevelled on the left and right edges. The tiled floor was underdrawn, and fine, precise lines of the underdrawing are also visible in the architecture. The lines converge on the vanishing point behind the back of the priest in the background, which is marked by a hole on the surface. The composition was painstakingly built up and detailed, with one salient feature being the rather coarse brushstrokes in the large surfaces of the architecture. There is a pentimento to the left of the base of the column bearing the artist’s signature. The figures were painted on top of the architecture.

Fair. There are two small horizontal cracks in the upper right corner of the panel. The paint layers are severely abraded. The architecture shows through the figures due to abrasion and the increased transparency of the paint layers. There are a number of losses in the altar in the background. The varnish is discoloured.

...; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 17 July 1890;¹¹RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 170, no. 256 (17 July 1890); RANH, ARS, Kop, no. 289, p. 274, no. 629 (29 July 1890). on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, since 18 February 2002

Object number: SK-A-1527

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

As with most of De Giselaer’s architectural paintings, the figures in this one are taken from the Bible. The annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to Zacharias is taking place in the middleground. According to St Luke, Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense while the people prayed outside. An angel then appeared in the temple to announce that his wife would bear him a son, John, the later John the Baptist.⁴⁴Luke 1:9-20. This subject, which was not a standard one in 17th-century Dutch painting, is depicted at least three times in De Giselaer’s oeuvre. In addition to this panel of 1625 there are undated works in Utrecht⁵⁵Centraal Museum, panel, 55.8 x 72.9 cm; coll. cat. Utrecht 1999, II, p. 892, no. 229. and in a private collection.⁶⁶Panel, 37.7 x 64.8 cm; sale, Anthony Marreco et al. (anonymous section), London (Christie’s), 23 May 1986, no. 175 (ill.). The compositions and staffage of the other two works with this subject are comparable to the painting in Amsterdam, but where they have a view through to the choir of a Gothic church, this one is built in a Renaissance style.

It is not clear to what extent De Giselaer was responsible for the staffage in his paintings. It is believed that the figures in the Utrecht panel are the work of Cornelis van Poelenburch, his fellow townsman.⁷⁷Note RKD. The figures in the background in the Rijksmuseum painting are in any event related to Van Poelenburch’s types.

There was a painting by De Giselaer of this subject in Stadholder Frederik Hendrik’s collection in 1632 and in 1654-68.⁸⁸Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer I, 1974, p. 183, no. 55 (1632 inventory): ‘Een schilderie perspectijff door Gijselaer gemaeckt’ (A perspective painting made by De Giselaer), and p. 284, no. 1220 (1654-68 inventory): ‘Een perspective sijnde de aendieninge van de geboorte Johannes des Doopers door den engel aen Zacharias gedaen. gemaeckt bij Mr. Gijselaer’ (A perspective, being the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist made by the angel to Zacharias. Made by Master De Giselaer). Montias assumed that this is the work now in the Rijksmuseum,⁹⁹Montias 1991, p. 19. but it could also have been one of the other versions. It is equally uncertain whether a history painting that was auctioned in Paris in 1817 is identical with the one in the Rijksmuseum.¹⁰¹⁰Sale, Frères Durand et al., Paris (Henry), 8 December 1817 sqq., no. 85: ‘Intérieur de chapelle ornée de colonnes et de pilastres imitant un marbre vert. Parmi les figures qui y sont représentées, on remarque un ange apparaissant à un saint évêque’ (Interior of a chapel decorated with columns and pilasters in imitation of green marble; one notes an angel appearing to a holy bishop), fr. 46, to Simon.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 87.

Jantzen 1910, p. 162, no. 160c; Jantzen 1979, p. 224, no. 160*

1890, p. 52, no. 419a; 1903, p. 106, no. 982; 1976, p. 243, no. 1527; 2007, no. 87

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Nicolaes de Giselaer, The Archangel Gabriel Appearing to Zacharias (Luke 1:11), 1625', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027936