Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

When I first found this image, I didn't believe it was from Chartres Cathedral! I thought I had stumbled across a grisaille window from England. But now, it is really from Chartres, from the Digital Library of the University of Pittsburgh. 

According to the University website:

[Mary's] face was replaced in the 16th century. Between Mary and the Angel is a vase with lilies. The borders of the window alternate between yellow fleurs de lis on a blue background and elaborate chain-like geometric forms. 

Delaporte says these are components of the coats of arms of Navarre and the French Royal Family. These houses had been interrelated since the marriage of King Phillip the Fair of France to Jeanne of Navarre in 1284. Delaporte believes that the donor of this window was the gift of Queen Blanche of Navarre ca 1350. The window was restored in 1918.

 

Chartres Cathedral, Grisaille Window with Annunciation
University of Pittsburgh Digital Library; contributed by Philip Maye

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This week's Annunciation is from San Giovanni Rotondo, the town that will forever be associated with the ministry of St Pio of Pietrelciona (Padre Pio). Father Rupnick did all the mosaics for the lower-level church where the saint's body rests. (Friday will be the feast day of St Pio; it's also my brother's birthday and the traditional feast of St Thecla, the woman porto-martyr.)

In the video you can see the many (many!) mosaics which feature key moments in the life of Padre Pio and of St Francis of Assisi alongside mysteries of the faith.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This week we have a 19th century colored chromolithograph crafted after an Annunciation by Theodor von Holst (1810-1844). It is reproduced under the Creative Commons license.

Colored chromolithograph, after Theodor von Holst (1810-1844)
Part of the Open Artstore Open: Wellcome Collection

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

We're going back to Denmark this week for an extraordinary medieval fresco depicting the Infancy Narrative of Luke's Gospel. The best I have been able to discern is that this is from a church or monastery on the largest island of Denmark. The triangular shape of the set hints that it may be the inside of an arch. (I could not find the source.)

The Annunciation is at the pinnacle, and beneath, on our left, the Nativity, and on the right, the Presentation in the Temple.

See more images from the same church on Wikimedia.

Frescoes from Kalkmaleri, Skibby Kirke, Skibby, Hornsherred, Sjælland
Photo by Orf3us, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons