In Ancilla Domini (1896) by Australian artist Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunn, Mary and Gabriel occupy two different "worlds," set apart by both the floor level and the background. Gabriel, in front of a red curtain (evoking the scarlet of the Temple drapes?) is here standing upright, rather than in the more common genuflected posture. Mary's position is elevated, as if in a raised sanctuary, but she is on her knees to accept the divine invitation. Behind Mary, on the back wall, there is a scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise: Mary, the new Eve, if about to "untie the knot" by which our first parents bound us in slavery to sin.
