Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)

Workshop of Robert Campin (Netherlandish, Tournai, c. 1375–1444)

For the Annunciation · 25 March

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 56.70a–c

Medium Oil on oak

Dimensions Overall (open): 25 3/8 x 46 3/8 in. (64.5 x 117.8 cm); Central panel: 25 1/4 x 24 7/8 in. (64.1 x 63.2 cm); each wing: 25 3/8 x 10 3/4 in. (64.5 x 27.3 cm)

Credit The Cloisters Collection, 1956

Sizes

Mid donors 12×12 in + annunciation 12×12 in + joseph 12×12 in $139 · $165 bought separately · the painted images hang level

One object, one accession: the Met holds the three panels as 56.70a–c and they are sold whole. Three sheets, one edition - $139.

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Our Lady sits on the floor with her back against the bench, so deep in her book that she has not looked up, and Gabriel has already come in. On the table a lily stands in a jug beside a candlestick and another open book. The Met says a tiny figure with a cross comes down the golden rays through the round window on the left. Next door Saint Joseph drills holes in a board, and the Met notes the mousetraps on his bench and in his window, thought to recall Saint Augustine calling the Cross the devil's mousetrap. On the left the donor kneels at the open door, his wife behind him and a town messenger at the gate. The triptych came from Robert Campin's workshop in Tournai about 1427 to 1432, bought, the Met suggests, for private prayer in a house not unlike this one. The door is open.

The Met's order: the donors' wing, the Annunciation, Joseph's wing - the triptych open, as the Cloisters shows it. The panels are equal in height (64.1 and 64.5 cm, the Met's dimensions) and the printed images hang level within 0%, three 12 in images on three square sheets.

Provenance of the files
Held by	The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · 56.70a–c the museum’s record
Source file	The Met’s own open-access file
Licence	Public domain (CC0, The Met)
Panel · donors	The Merode Altarpiece — The Donors (left wing) — 1,582 × 3,722 px
Panel · annunciation	The Merode Altarpiece — The Annunciation — 3,623 × 3,662 px
Panel · joseph	The Merode Altarpiece — Joseph in his Workshop (right wing) — 1,606 × 3,722 px
Chain	Each panel taken from the source file above and cut to its own painted field; held as 3 print masters.

Sources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)', Workshop of Robert Campin, ca. 1427–32, 56.70a–c; object page read 2026-09-13.

Printed on demand as one edition. The whole image is printed on every sheet — never cropped to fit — so each panel carries an archival margin.