Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

 

From the notes in the Walters Museum of Art catalog: Monogrammed "S. C." [for the artist, Suzanne de Court] in gold letters near the top of the left edge, this devotional plaque is by the only woman enamel painter to sign her work (sometimes in full). Based on the same source as the Annunciation plaque by Jean Limosin (Walters 44.346), this piece is notable for the brilliance of the translucent enamel colors, especially the garnet red, and the delicately applied gilding, although the overall emphasis on surface pattern, dazzling though it is, nearly flattens out the space.
 

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Note God the Father appearing in the middle of this altarpiece!

From the notes for this work (Walters Museum of Art): This relief is from an altarpiece that probably depicted the life of Christ. The Archangel Gabriel appears to the Virgin carrying a scroll upon which his salutation: "Ave Maria gratia plena" ("Hail Mary, full of grace") probably appeared, as it does on the version below. God the Father holds an orb representing the universe and blesses the event. The vase of lilies, an allusion to the Virgin's purity, is often found in Annunciation scenes. The flamboyant sweep of Gabriel's immense wings, which encompasses the donor, a Franciscan monk*, and gently caressing the Virgin, is a feature shared with reliefs from a workshop that flourished from the 1390s to the 1440s in the neighboring towns of Joinville and Vignory in northeast France. Most of these reliefs were intended to be painted.

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*Eventually, the curators may learn that Franciscans are not monks but friars.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

In honor of today's feast of St Benedict, abbot, the Annuncation scene for this week is from a bishop's (or abbot's?) crozier. Three serpents fall headlong down the staff, showing God's triumph over sin through Christ's incarnation.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This lovely scene is a rare late Renaissance work by a woman artist, 

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614). From the Walters Museum of Art.