Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Annunciation, by the inimitable Botticelli (1485)

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

In this late Gothic limestone relief (which still bears traces of paint), Mary is calmly seated with a book, seemingly not even aware of the presence of the Angel with his graceful wings and message.
From the Walters Museum of Art.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

The Annunciation, Veronese (1572)

On this feast of the Holy Name of Mary, it is lovely to read Luke's story of the Annunciation with its opening sentence:  "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary."

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

From the Walters Museum of Art: Gabriel approaches from the left, pointing his finger towards a scroll. The Virgin, who raises her right hand in surprise, holds a book in her left. Her apron-style drapery has cascades of small folds falling at either side. A vase with a lily sits between the figures, and the Holy Ghost descends from the clouds above. The scene is set beneath a canopy of three trefoil arches surmounted by a band of dentils. The Annunciation box appears to be the only religious ivory known from the Atelier of the Boxes. The treatment of the architectural canopy is identical to other works from the workshop. The interior, which is the bottom of the box, is divided into compartments to hold a balance and weights. The sliding top of the box is missing.