The Archangel Gabriel Appearing to Zacharias, Nicolaes de Giselaer, 1625

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.4 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 Utrecht5 and in a private collection.6 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.7 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 1654-68.8 Montias assumed that this is the work now in the Rijksmuseum,9 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.10 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.