Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

 The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya has this amazing 12th century fresco, transferred from the actual walls of a church nave (body) to canvas. Above one of the arches we see the Annunciation. It could be that the upper layer of images are from the infancy narratives, while the arches may feature the passion. (That is just a conjecture on my part, since the full image available to me shows a Nativity to the left of the Annunciation.)

At first I had my doubts about this being an Annunciation, and then I saw that Mary what was working on. Spinning thread into yarn is a clear sign of Our Lady of the Annunciation!

Annunciation from frescoes of the parish church of Sant Pere de Sorpe (Alt Àneu, Pallars Sobirà)

Some of the nave frescoes of the parish church of Sant Pere de Sorpe (Alt Àneu, Pallars Sobirà)
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

Annunciation by Alonso Gallego (1457-1548). It would be interesting to see this altarpiece in its original setting ( the parish church of San Hipólito, in the town of Támara, Palencia, Spain), to understand why the torsos of Mary and Gabriel are so elongated and Gabriel's face, in particular, seems foreshortened. 

Annunciation, 1530-1537
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Praying the Angelus with Art: This Week's Image

From the early 1300's comes this carved section of a Spanish Gothic altarpiece, the work of noted sculptor Jaume Cascalls.

Annunciation in alabaster by Jaume Cascalls (altarpiece fragment)
Permanent loan from the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona
to the Museu Provincial d'Antiguitats, 1879
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya