Another Annunciation by Veronese this week! Here again we see the master's architectural setting telling part of the story. I especially like the way the light of the Holy Spirit is treated!
Read more about the origins of this image and the recent restoration at savevenice.org
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| Annunciation, Veronese (1578) Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia |
The Episcopal Church of St. Paul's Within the Walls in Rome features this 1888 Annunciation in mosaic, designed by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
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| Annunciation St Paul's Within the Walls, Rome |
Greater detail, and an explanation from the church website:
On the face of the first arch, in front of the apse, is a representation of the Annunciation based on an early legend. We see Mary in the desert outside the town walls, drawing water from a spring. As she turns homeward, the angel greets her. Burne-Jones has chosen to represent this as happening against the reddening evening sky, the time of the Angelus. In the lower left-hand corner, we see a pelican, in medieval times a symbol of Christ, for according to popular belief it customarily tore open its breast with its beak to feed its hungry young. Under this scene is written the greeting of Gabriel: “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee” (Luke 1:28) and Mary’s answer “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word.” (Luke 1:38)
We're moving back to Spain this week for a late 14th (or maybe cusp of the 15th) century predella (bottom row of an altarpiece. The Annunciation and Crucifixion are the central panels, flanked on the left by St. John the Baptist and on the right by St. Catherine of Alexandria. Francesc Comes was a significant Majorcan artist and painter to the King of Aragon. (One of Comes' works in the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum is thought to feature a portrait of the king.)
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| Annunciation detail Francesc Comes predella (Francesc Cambó Bequest, 1949) |
Here is the predella in full:
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| Predella, Francesc Comes Francesc Cambó Bequest, 1949 |
