Annunciation

The announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary: "You shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus." The Incarnation of Christ is reckoned to have taken place at this moment. The feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on 25 March, just nine months before the Nativity. It is known in England as Lady Day. The prevalence of the theme in Christian art reflects its doctrinal importance; monastic Orders and lay confraternities placed themselves under its patronage, and the widespread dedication of churches, chapels and altars to the Annunciation led to a diffusion of the subject in places of worship. Its three essential elements are the angel, the Virgin, and the dove of the Holy Spirit descending towards her. In the West it seems to have been represented first in Gothic church art. It is seldom seen without additional symbolic features, some of which are taken from the apocryphal gospels and the Golden Legend. St Bernard and others emphasized that the event took place in springtime, hence the motif of a flower in a vase, which later became a lily, the symbol of the Virgin's purity. A distaff or a basket of wool, seen in some medieval examples, alludes to the legend of the Virgin's upbringing in the Temple at Jerusalem where she would spin and weave the priests' vestments. Her most constant attribute is a book from which, according to St Bernard, she is reading the celebrated prophecy of Isaiah (7:14), "A young woman is with child (Vulgate: 'Virgo concipiet"), and she will bear a son . . ." A closed book, held in the hand, was said to allude also to Isaiah (29:11-12), 'All prophetic vision has become for you like a sealed book . . .' Inscriptions, sometimes on a scroll or leaf of parchment, are common, especially in early Netherlandish painting. From the angel issue the words "Ave Maria", or "Ave gratia plena Dominus tecum"— ;"Greetings most favored one! The Lord is with you" (Luke 1: 28); and from the Virgin, "Ecce ancilla Domini" "Here I am," said Mary; "I am the Lord's servant" (Luke 1:58). The latter inscription may be upside down so that it can be more easily read by God the Father, depicted above (Jan van Eyck, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.). The Virgin either stands, sits, or, more usually, kneels, generally at a prie-dieu. If standing she may be turning away from the angel, her hands raised defensively: "Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary".

The archangel Gabriel is winged and is traditionally in white. He may be descending towards the Virgin, but usually stands or kneels before her. Italian painting from the first half of the 16th century shows the angel on a bed of cloud, suggesting that it comes from heaven. This was seldom omitted in the later painting of the Counter-Reformation. In early examples the angel holds a scepter tipped with a fleur-de-lys, the attribute of Gabriel, but later it often holds the lily. In Sienese painting it holds an Olive branch, an indication of the enmity that existed between Siena and Florence, since the lily was the civic emblem of the latter city. In Counter-Reformation art Gabriel is generally attended by other angels, either fully grown or infant putti. The dove usually descends on a slanting ray of light that touches the Virgin's head or breast. God the Father is sometimes introduced above as the source of the light. The image as a whole is meant to suggest the moment of the Virgin's conception, that is, of Christ's Incarnation through the Holy Spirit which descended from God.

As to the setting, Luke merely mentions that the angel "went in" to Mary at Nazareth. Italian Renaissance painting however tends to depict an exterior: an open loggia or portico, and only rarely the interior of Mary's chamber. Northern artists of the same period generally introduce ecclesiastical architecture which modern scholarship has shown to contain a symbolic meaning. The Gothic style with tall pointed arches and slender molded pillars, which to painters of the early Netherlandish schools was modern, familiar and western, symbolized Christianity and the Church. This is contrasted in the same picture with a kind of Romanesque - rounded arches, plain pillars and domes - meant to correspond to the architectural style of the eastern Mediterranean, and therefore symbolic of Judaism. The Virgin is sometimes depicted within or standing at the door of a Gothic building, while nearby the Romanesque crumbles into ruins. Thus Christ's Incarnation was shown to herald the New Dispensation that replaced the Old. The open area in which the Virgin receives the angel is well lit, illuminated by the light of the Christian faith, in contrast to the small dark windows of the "eastern" (Romanesque) temple, or synagogue, in the background. Rays of light passing through the glass in a window also signify virginity. In the synagogue may be seen an altar on which rest the tablets of the Old Law. A walled garden, the hortus conclusus, and a tower, both symbols of the Virgin's chastity, may be introduced. With the art of the Counter Reformation came a complete change of setting. From the late 16th century all suggestion of an edifice was usually abandoned. Instead, the background dissolves into clouds and sky, out of which the dove descends in a dazzling light, suggesting to the spectator that heaven is an immediate presence.