My interest in medieval images of the Virgin Mary began with the Annunciation of the Virgin. During my doctoral studies I had the opportunity to take a course in Italian art history at the Istituto Svedese in Rome — truly a feast for any art historian since we could visit and study art and architecture in a Grand Tour fashion. But there is also a risk of overload, particularly in the churches of Rome that are heavily decorated from floor to roof with visual propaganda. To focus on one particular motif was not just a strategy of orientation in the various narratives present in the churches, it was also a matter of survival from the risks of a Stendahl-syndrome (something that might happen to tourists of Florence when over-exposed to the marvelous art collections - basically a nervous breakdown). At first I tried to use the Madonna of Mercy, but that figure was not depicted as much as the Annunciation and the variation in the last motif was stunning. The Virgin got different looks, positions and activities by artists from different periods and places. Her gaze was directed to the viewer, to other characters in the images or to nothing at all, and the holy spirit in the shape of the dove flew towards different parts of her body. Could close readings of different Annunciations bring new understandings to views on women in different eras and geographical boundaries? Back in Sweden I started to take photos of the Annunciation from different periods and it struck me how some of these were different from the ones I saw in Italy, or just plain strange. Like the above from Bro church on the island of Gotland, where the angel Gabriel seems to actually touch the Virgin and with an almost arrogant face. I started to read and realized that the Annunciation is quite a challenge for the artists since the story in the Bible records a scene where the Virgin does not see Gabriel, the dialogue between the angel and the Virgin is silent with the exception of the Virgin's positive answer and the miracle itself - the Incarnation - is invisible. Now this motif is part of a wider research project I am involved in on the depictions of the Virgin, but I want to recommend Mia Åkestam's brilliant thesis on Swedish medieval Annunciations Bebådelsebilder. Om bildbruk under medeltiden [The Annunciation. On the use of imagery during the Middle Ages] from 2010. She presents the Annuciation in a historical context, does close iconographic readings and explains how the images were used rhetorically.