Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

According to an abstract of a scholarly book from Columbia University, (John) Lu Hongnian 1919-1989 "was a well-known Chinese artist and scholar of art." Some of his art (including an Annunciation in traditional Chinese style) was included in a Feb 1937 exhibition at the College of Chinese Studies, California College in China and published in a book entitled Christian Sacred Pictures. (I was unable to ascertain whether this Annunciation was one of the ones featured in the book; I found another of his Annunciations that I will post later in the year.)  Notice how he includes several very traditional Annunciation elements in this Chinese depiction of Gabriel's visit.

According to the website https://chineseposters.net/artists/luhongnian:

Lu Hongnian (1919-1989) was a native of Taicang, Jiangsu Province. He loved painting when he was young, and studied landscape with Li Zhichao in middle school. In 1932, he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of the private Fu Jen Catholic University to study Chinese painting and mural painting. In 1936, he graduated from the Fu Jen University Department of Fine Arts and stayed on as an assistant teacher in the Department of Fine Arts, as well as an art teacher in Fu Jen Catholic High School. After 1949, he served as a lecturer and associate professor in the Chinese Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1953, he was selected as Beijing Advanced Artistic Worker.

From 1957 to 1962, he led a team to visit Yongle Palace six times, and completed the task of copying more than 800 square meters of murals in the halls of Yongle Palace. In 1975, he completed the task of copying the murals of the North Qi Gaorun Tomb in Ci County, Hebei Province.

Text in the blue-framed picture reads:
Art work of Lu Hong Nian from Tai Chang

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

From the Museum of the Prado, this week's Annunciation is by Francisco Rizi. Last year the Angelus Project featured another Annunciation that Rizi painted at about the same time (circa 1663).

Image ©Museo Nacional del Prado

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gift of Coudert Brothers, 1888

This week's Annunciation is a detail from a 16th century Italian original. Evidently someone thought it was a good idea to cut it out of the work (a vestment, perhaps?). The embroidery is done in "silk and metal-wrapped thread on silk" and measures roughly 4.5 inches across.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

According to the blog Indigenous Jesus, Indonesian artist Nyoman “Darsane was born in 1939 to rice farmers, but was raised and educated in the local ruler’s palace with one of the princes. As a result, he learned Balinese culture and religion (Hinduism), and also became a musician, dancer and puppet player. When Darsane later studied art at Universitas Diponogoro in Java, he met a Christian woman who became his wife. Darsane returned to Bali as a professional artist and Christian. As he sought ways to combine Balinese arts with the message of the gospel, his motto became 'Bali is my body. Christ is my life.' He was rejected by his family and community after becoming a Christian, though he has recaptured much of his family’s respect due to his attempt to remain Balinese in his Christian art and life.”

In addition to producing art, Darsane mentors artists as an advisor to Narwastu.

Darsane has created several Annunciations inspired by the culture of Bali. That is very apparent in his 2002 painting, entitled, "The Angel's Whisper." It is based on a sacred dance tradition in Bali in which only young maidens can participate. According to the blog Global Christian Worship, Gabriel "is a wayang figure. He blows/whispers into Mary’s ear through a lotus that he holds in his hands.”

The Angel's Whisper by Nyoman Darsane

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Happy New Year! After yesterday's Feast of Mary, Mother of God, we have a lovely Annunciation to start the Year of the Lord 2022. May it be a year of grace (and good health!) for you and those you love!

The first Annunciation of the year is by Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, with Manuela Viezzoli and Maria Stella Secchiaroli. It is from the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and was dedicated in 2009. (Read the Chapel guidebook here; all the art on this page is taken from it.)

The Annunciation flanks the altar and frames the icon-style mosaic of the Resurrection. Jesus, the Conquerer of Death, is the New Adam and Mary, the New Eve. By his Incarnation, which took place at the moment of Mary's "yes," Jesus is also the Son of Adam and Eve, who are depicted in Eastern icons of the Resurrection as being pulled from the grave by the Risen Jesus. 

Gabriel serves as both the Angel of the Annunciation and the Angel of the Resurrection. He holds the open scroll that shows that all this has taken place "according to the Scriptures" (as we pray in the Creed). 

Full-length image of
Mary allows us to see
that the yarn is held 
against her womb.

Mary holds the red yarn that alludes to the tradition of the virgins who wove the veil for the Holy of Holies and symbolizes the "weaving" of the flesh of the Son of God in her womb. (The same image of the human body as the work of a weaver can be found in the Psalms.)

In the full-length image of Mary, you can see that her right hand is in precisely the position of an expectant mother cradling her unborn child. (See the detail for a close-up of the yarn held at the position of her womb.)

On the day after the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, I think this is a most suitable image to pray with!

Detail of Mary, so you can see the red yarn.