Dr Richard Stracke of ChristianIconography.info explains what makes this 14th or 15th century Annunciation unique:
Traditional Annunciations picture the moment of Incarnation, when the
Son of God became human and "the Word was made flesh" (John 1:5). They
signify the Incarnation by picturing a dove flying to Mary on a sunbeam
from Heaven. But the San Salvador fresco departs from the tradition and
presents a moment after the Incarnation. There is no dove, no sunbeam. Mary is already what the inscription proclaims her, mater dei,
the Mother of God. Her left hand touches her swelling abdomen, where
the Word now dwells, and her right hand points to sacred scripture, that
other manifestation of the Word. She holds that hand in the traditional
blessing configuration, in which the index and middle fingers pressed
together signify the union of God and Man that has just occurred. Her
crown, which does not appear in other Annunciations, speaks to her new
dignity as God's mother.
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| The frescoes in their architectural context. Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke; all images shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. |
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