Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

From the Netherlands, a nighttime Annunciation (with a number of onlookers at the window!) by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen.

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This wood engraving by the prolific Albrecht Dürer is from the artist's "Small Passion."

Dürer had a real understanding of marketing: He always made sure people could recognize his work (note the logo over Mary's bed). He has not exactly gone down in history for his humility. (Once he even created a Head of Christ (Salvator Mundi style) that was a self-portrait!) But the man was a consummate artist, as we can attest from this finely executed Annunciation:

Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This charming Annunciation by Eugène Delacroix was just a draft created to accompany a proposal for a project. He was chosen as the replacement artist for the Chapel of the Virgin in the Church of Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement in Paris. According to the Louvre's website, the parish priest wanted either an Annunciation or an Assumption. Delacroix really wanted to paint (and in the end did paint) a Pietà. 

I think Delacroix's Annunciation fits well in these days before Christmas: the warm colors and subtle lighting, the open door with its view of the countryside and the two angels in the rafters hint at the stable of Bethlehem where Mary "will bear a son and give him the name Jesus."

The Annunciation, Eugène Delacroix

© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Gérard Blot

Used with permission.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

From the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands (you can do an amazing virtual visit of the museum) comes this late 17th century Annunciation by Francesco Solimena.

Francesco Solimena, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

We close the Year of St Joseph this week (on Wednesday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception), with the Dream of St Joseph (an event often referred to as the "Annunciation to Joseph) by 17th century artist Luca Giordano. 

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.