Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Virginia artist Jerry Coulter, who retired after a 40 year career as a professor of art at James Madison University, offers us this final Annunciation of 2022. 

Merry Christmas!

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Given the famous logo of Albrecht Dürer in the lower right corner of the image, it was a long time before it was attributed (with a fair amount of credibility) to Marcantonio Raimondi, who worked off of a Dürer model. It is dated 1506-1508. 

• • Annunciation: Marcantonio Raimondi, after Albrecht Dürer
  • Photo: Nasjonalmuseet/Høstland, Børre; used under Creative Commons: CC-BY
• Creation datePhoto: Nasjonalmuseet/Høstland, Børre, used under Creative Commons - Attribution CC-BY

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

This sweet Italian Annunciation is part of a panel of two images that date to the late 14th century. (The upper image appears to be the Birth of the Virgin.) It is in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum.

Altichiero (Italian, fl. 1369–before 1393), Annunciation. 

Gift of Henry White Cannon Jr., Class of 1910, in memory of his Father.

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Back to the Renaissance! Born in 1492 in Brussels, Bernard Van Orley painted this Annunciation in 1518.  You can find it in the National Museum of Norway.

From the museum's website:

Bernard van Orley is regarded as one of the most important Flemish painters in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance north of the Alps. One of the first artists to visit Italy and be inspired by the ideals of the Renaissance, he was hailed by his contemporaries as the “Raphael of the Low Countries”. His paintings are typified by their meticulous details and vivid colours. He also emphasized a sense of space influenced by the Renaissance’s interest in linear perspective and the architecture of antiquity. Van Orley ran a large studio with many assistants in both Antwerp and Brussels. He served intermittently as a court painter, first for Margaret of Austria, the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, and subsequently for her successor, Mary of Hungary.

Text: Frithjof Bringager

From "Highlights. Art from Antiquity to 1945", Nasjonalmuseet 2014, ISBN 978-82-8154-088-0