Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

You'd never know from looking at il Guercino's 1646 masterpiece that the artist was a largely self-taught painter nicknamed "Squint-eye." His eye seems to have been as exquisite as his technique!

Guercino, like many artists of his day, was called upon to create a number of Annunciations. But in more than one he offered a unique perspective: All the action is going on in Heaven, while on earth, Mary is as yet unaware of the way her life (and ours!) is about to change.


Having worked for months on the 2015 restoration of the Guercio Annunciation, restorer Licia Tasini gives us a sense of the size of the painting.