The Annunciation attributed to Walter Monich from the Bargello will be at least for 10 years at the National Museum of Abruzzo

Thanks to the collaboration between the Bargello Museums in Florence and the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo (MuNDA) in L’Aquila, as part of the National Museum System coordinated by the Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate of Museums, from December 18, 2024 The Annunciation attributed to Walter Monich will be exhibited at MuNDA on deposit for ten renewable years.

The sculptural group consists of two distinct elements: theAnnouncing Angel and the Virgin Annunciate. Made of Majella stone, it has long been attributed to Abruzzo goldsmith and sculptor Nicola da Guardiagrele. Originally from a shrine located inside a private garden in Tocco da Casauria (Pescara), the work was probably part of the decoration of a portal, as suggested by the unworked back, typical of works designed to be set against a wall.

Having entered the domestic market, the intervention of the Ministry of Education was urged to avert the sculpture’s export to America. In the spring of 1907 the work was acquired by the state and, given the absence at that time in Abruzzo of a state museum institution that could worthily preserve and exhibit it, the work was assigned to the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, an institution deputed to the display of sculpture collections. There it found its place in the Salone di Donatello, where it was displayed on a high shelf to recall its probable original position, as evidenced by a period photo preserved in the Bargello’s Photographic Archives.

In more recent years, the work has been attributed to German sculptor Walter Monich, also known as Gualtiero d’Alemagna. Probably originally from Munich, Monich is documented in Italy between 1399 and 1412. After working for a decade at the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan, where he coordinated a team of three hundred stonemasons, the sculptor moved to the south-central Italy, working between Orvieto and Abruzzo.

In 1412, he signed as “magister Gualterius de Alamania” the Caldora Family Monument in the Badia di Santo Spirito al Morrone in Sulmona. A few years later, he also probably made the Monument of Niccolò di Giacobuccio Gaglioffi in the church of San Domenico in L’Aquila, unfortunately destroyed in the 1703 earthquake. More uncertain, however, is his attribution of the Tomb of Ludovico II Camponeschi, dated 1432 and located in the church of San Biagio di Amiterno, now San Giuseppe Artigiano. Recently, critics have also speculated his hand behind the statue of St. John the Baptist placed outside the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Guardiagrele.

“We are delighted and honored by this deposit from the Bargello Museums,” said Federica Zalabra, director of the Abruzzo National Museum in L’Aquila. “The display of the Annunciation in our halls further underscores the role of the Abruzzo National Museum of L’Aquila as a custodian and interpreter of the art of the entire region.”

“Arrived in 1907 at the Bargello National Museum, this evocative Annunciation was placed in Donatello’s Hall to narrate-along with sublime masterpieces-the transition from Gothic to Renaissance: recently attributed to Walter Monich, today the work leaves its museum and will stay away from it for a few years. But its return to Abruzzo is a return to its origins, which comes thanks to the initiative of Director General Prof. Massimo Osanna and to which the Bargello Museum is pleased to contribute, depriving itself of an important sculpture that will nonetheless constitute a new feather in the cap of the National Museum of Abruzzo,” said Ilaria Ciseri, official in charge of the Bargello National Museum’s collections.

The Annunciation attributed to Walter Monich from the Bargello will be at least for 10 years at the National Museum of Abruzzo

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