Since it is March 25 it is perhaps not a surprise that there would be a blog post on the Annunciation — the celebration of the Virgin Mary receiving the message through the angel Gabriel that she would conceive the Son of God. When she accepted this message the Incarnation could happen, that is God could become man. The story is being told in the Bible, Luke 1:26-38, and since the Incarnation is a most fundamental part of Christianity the story of the Annunciation have also been central in Christian art.

I first became fascinated with depictions of the Annunciation during a Ph D-course in Italian art history at the Istituto Svedese in Rome 2002. There were so many variations on the theme depending on what part of this short story the artist was focussing on together with the context of the image itself. Both the Virgin and the angel had different looks, various gestures and activities, and the scene was set in diverse places. Before this I thought the Annunciation strictly just followed both scripture and a given models for images. It kind of does, but especially from the renaissance on there are some interesting renditions of the motif. In this short post I can only present two of my Annunication favorites.

Above you find a medieval relief from a baptismal font of Grötlingbo parish church (Gotland, Sweden) made c. 1200. The angel approaches the Virgin from the left side with a palm leaf in "his" hand (angels are not human, and therefor also of no particular gender). The Virgin Mary is standing on the right side, facing the viewer frontally with her hands folded in front of her. Usually this is understood as a receiving gesture, as sign of how she accepts the angel's message. Her slightly tilted head shows that she is listening to "him" and her gaze to the ground depicts how she actually did not see the angel. Since Gabriel is shown in profile with the feet visible, we can read in some activity in this character. Compare it with the feet of the Virgin and we can see how she is depicted as standing still. Since this sculpture has so much fine detail (even if its color is gone) it is very decorative and moving. The problem is how one should interpret the Virgins expression. It is very easy to fall into anachronistic speculations because it seems so vivid.

Below you find a Annunciation of Antoniazzo Romano painted c. 1500 in Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Rome). It depicts a scene full of different characters but the angel Gabriel still approaches the Virgin Mary from the left, and she … well, what is she doing? Hardly listening or even noticing what is going on, even if we can see how God is sending the dove of the Holy Spirit to make her pregnant with the Son of God. Instead a man and a group of girls are getting the Virgin's full attention, and she is giving one of the girls a bag full of money. It was made for the chapel of a fraternity called Compania della Santissima Annunziata. It was founded by the depicted cardinal, Juan de Torquemada, and the aim of the fraternity was to collect money for dowries to poor women in Rome (and these were given to the selected women on March 25 - sometimes by the Pope). Antoniazzo Romano has combine the two narratives into his depiction of the Annunciation.

If you are curious of learning a bit more of this last image you can find a paper presentation I gave at Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2006 here (together with other interesting papers from other members of Umeå Group of Premodern Studies): http://www.org.umu.se/ugps/eng/working-paper-series/ Then remember to look for images of the Annunciation on your future church visits and discover all the fascinating variations - in looks, gestures, expressions, activities, locations and other characters.