Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This exceptional Annunciation was the last work executed by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, c. 1344. Lorenzetti was a pioneer in the use of perspective in art, something that can be seen very clearly in the paving tiles depicted in a work that takes a bold step away from Byzantine iconographic style.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

The visit of the Archangel to Mary (left column) appears almost as an afterthought in this detail from a French Book of Hours in the collection of The Morgan Library and Museum. The corresponding image on the right hand side is of the "Annunciation" to Joachim, who was to become Mary's father. In the dominant central frame, we see Joachim drawing near Anna his wife at the city gates, ready to kiss her. (Pious legends imagined Mary being conceived in her mother's womb in this chaste encounter.) The lower half of the page, not seen here, depicts the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. Perhaps the artist intended us to understand that it was in view of the Annunciation to Mary that the Annunciation to Joachim (and then from Joachim to Anna) was made.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image UPDATED

It took the crowdsearching power of the Internet to track down the artist and the source of this week's Annunciation. Thank you, Anthony Fink, for telling me that this striking modern Annunciation is the work of New York artist Walter Lane, and used on the cover of a book published Deseret Book Company (a Latter Day Saints publishing house).

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Detail from a French Book of Hours (Paris, ca. 1420-1425)

from The Morgan Library and Museum

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Alejo Fernández. The Annunciation (early to mid 16th century).

Click to enlarge.