Praying the Regina Coeli with Art

Troparion: “Today is the beginning of our salvation, the revelation of the eternal mystery! The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as the Angel Gabriel announces the coming of Grace. Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: ‘Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you!’” 

In honor of today's  Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, shifted from its traditional date of March 25 (Good Friday this year), the Angelus Project features both an Annunciation image and (since the Regina Coeli replaces the Angelus prayer during the Easter season),  this season's art with images of Mary as Queen, in particular, her Coronation.

The Annunciation by Mikhail Nesterov (1901)

 

The Coronation of the Virgin by Francisco Ribalta 

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Luc Oliver Merson, The Annunciation (1908)

Pondering the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

William Brassey Hole was an English artist who grew up in Scotland where he acquired a background in civil engineering. He was a prolific artist of biblical scenes: he had traveled to the Holy Land to prepare for this, eventually producing 80 watercolors for his “The Life of Jesus of Nazareth,” exhibited in London in 1906. Presumably the Annunciation was part of that project.

Pondering the Angelus with Art: into a New Year

The Royal Doors from a Romanian Church seem to be a fitting representation of our prayer as we prepare to go through the doors of 2014 into a new Year. May we take the Angel's greeting with us so that we, too, recognize how "highly favored" we are every day. Every day of 2015 may we respond, "Be it done to me."