Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

The lovely Annunciation by Martin Johann Schmidt (1771) can be seen in the National Gallery of Slovenia.

 

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

I found a new artist! Macha Chmakoff works in oil and has done some abundant painting on Scriptural themes, including quite a few Annunciations that I will be happy to feature over the next several months. This is her Annonciation à l'ange émerveillé. 

Look at the way the "wings" of the Holy Spirit "overshadow" Mary, in accordance with Gabriel's words, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you," the way the glorious cloud of God's Presence covered the Ark of the Covenant and the Meeting Tent (or Tabernacle) during the Exodus. By the Incarnation, Mary became the new (and very real) Ark of the Covenant. She carried not the sign of God's presence, but the Real Presence of God himself among his people.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This seemingly plain image has a striking history! Almost three feet high, and over 5 feet long, it was created as an altarpiece before the introduction of the reredos (those tall "backgrounds" that extend several feet or even yards up from the surface level of an altar).

At the center, Mary is enthroned in glory; the Annunciation scene is to her right. On the left is the Baptism of the Lord. (This brings to my mind the Royal Doors of a Byzantine Church, and the linking of Mary and John the Baptist as the great intercessors in the Deesis icons.)

This image was lost for who knows how long: Only in 1835 was it discovered behind the altar of the Virgin in a Church of Saint John the Baptist in northern France. Art historians say it represents a transition between the Romanesque and Gothic periods, and note that it was originally painted, not a set of grey limestone blocks.

Virgin in Majesty (From the Louvre)

Detail of left panel 

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

In a charming terra-cotta relief from mid-15th century Italy, God looks almost like Noah, releasing the Dove of the spirit from Heaven to alight upon Mary.

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.