The Annunciation is one of the most popular Christian subjects in art. This pivotal biblical narrative comes from the Gospel of Luke. In the story, God sends the archangel Gabriel to visit a virgin woman named Mary living in Nazareth. The archangel tells her that she will bear the Son of God, Jesus. At first, Mary is surprised, questioning how such a thing is possible. Gabriel tells her not to be afraid and explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon her. Mary accepts humbly God’s will.
Sienese Scenes
One of the most beautiful depictions of the Annunciation was created by the Sienese 14th-century artists Simone Martini (circa 1284–1344) and his brother-in-law, Lippo Memmi (active between 1317 and 1347). “Annunciation With St. Maxima and St. Ansanus” from 1333 is a masterpiece in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Originally, it was made for the Cathedral of Siena’s altar of St. Ansanus.
Martini was one of the most talented, successful, and influential painters of the Trecento, or 1300s. His work was exalted by the contemporaneous early Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch. Martini’s pictures are characterized by a refined, lyrical, and elegant technique that is, nevertheless, imbued with naturalism.
His patrons were varied and numerous, including the French ruling family of Naples, the Sienese government, Franciscan friars in Assisi, and the papal court in Avignon, France, where he spent his final years. Martini’s style was greatly influential on both artists of his time and those who followed in the second half of the 14th century. His work formed the basis for the development of the aristocratic, courtly International Gothic style that was popular throughout Europe.
Memmi was a great artist, too, but has been historically overshadowed by Martini, in part due to misattributions of his work. The son of a Sienese artist, Memmi is known for his delicate, decorative lines and figural modeling. In “Annunciation With St. Maxima and St. Ansanus,” scholars find it difficult to differentiate between each artist’s hand, so seamless was their collaboration.
The Sienese origin of the painting is apparent from its sinuous lines and elegant colors. The art of Siena’s Tuscan rival, Florence, was marked at the time by an emphasis on volume. The picture is made of tempera on wood, with the panel’s gold background giving a sacredness to the composition. Incorporating tooled gold, created by impressing an engraved brass tool into the surface, comes from Byzantine art and became a key feature in the International Gothic style.
The central scene shows Gabriel, Mary, and the Holy Spirit. The archangel has just alighted to the ground, evidenced by his still-swirling cloak and spread wings. A raised inscription communicates his greeting: “Ave Gratia Plena Dominus Tecum” (“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee”). Mary conveys graceful movement, twisting and drawing back her body. The artists depict her as being surprised by and apprehensive of Gabriel’s sudden manifestation. At the top, the Holy Spirit is shown as a dove surrounded by angels. They also include realistic 14th-century details: a marble floor, a pot of lilies (a symbol of Mary), an elaborate throne, rich fabrics, and a half-closed book.
Champaigne’s Prized Theme
The prevalence of the Annunciation in medieval and Renaissance art continued into the 17th-century Baroque period. The Flemish-born French artist Philippe de Champaigne (1602–74) reportedly painted 17 versions of the scene, more than any other subject. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a jewel-like example from the middle of the series, around 1644. This small oil-on-oak painting was originally made for one of Champaigne’s royal patrons, Queen Anne of Austria. Later, the painting had other prominent owners, but had been last known to scholars from an 1812 engraving. At that time, it was in a private collection in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It resurfaced in 2003 and was acquired by The Met the following year.
Champaigne was a founding member of the French Academy, as well as a successful French painter at the French court, employed by the likes of King Louis XIII, his wife Queen Anne of Austria, Cardinal Richelieu, and Queen Mother Marie de Médicis. He was skillful in a number of genres, including portraiture, altarpiece, history painting, still life, and landscape. Champaigne brought his Flemish training—particularly the realism and strong, brilliant color of Rubens—to the classical style in vogue in the Paris art world in the 1640s. Champaigne was especially noted for his keen powers of observation revealed in material details, precise application of paint, and sculptural modeling. His pictures are instilled with dignity, austerity, sober emotion, and naturalism.
Champaigne’s work disdained the decorative in favor of the severe; he even employed a somewhat “icy palette” (cool color tones). This was due to the influence of Jansenism, a Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation movement characterized by asceticism, to which he was first drawn in the 1640s. In the latter years of his life, Champaigne withdrew from court and painted only religious pictures or family, friends, including leading Jansenists.
Rosetti’s Interpretation
A leading artistic movement in 19th-century Britain was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Members looked to the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, literature, and music for inspiration. They wanted to renew realism and emotionalism in art, bringing back what they deemed the purity of Italian art before the High Renaissance painter Raphael. Some of the movement’s most famous canvases show romanticized Shakespearean heroines, classical mythology, and medieval legends. However, sacred themes also played a prominent part.
One of the Brotherhood’s founders was Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82). Born in England into an Italian family, he was a gifted poet and painter, though he had limited formal art training. Tate Britain’s “Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation),” from 1849 to 1850, is an early work by the artist. Though Rossetti was inspired by Sandro Botticelli and Fra Angelico’s famous versions of the Annunciation, this canvas reveals Rossetti’s unique interpretation.
The shape of Rossetti’s canvas, tall and narrow, is unexpected, but scholars know he intended the work to form a diptych, which was never realized. Instead of gold dominating the palette as in Martini and Memmi’s version, Rossetti mainly uses white, symbolic of purity. The supporting colors are primary: blue, associated with heaven and Mary, and red, linked to the blood of Christ. (Mary is even depicted with red hair.) As Champaigne may have done, Rossetti used family as models. His brother was used for Gabriel and his sister posed for the Virgin.
Rossetti’s painting has an unusual depiction of Mary. Typically, she is shown seated in contemplation or kneeling in prayer. With the intention of maintaining hyperrealism, Rossetti places her on a low bed. She appears to have been sleeping and sits up somewhat ungainly, drawing back at the news. The archangel hands the Virgin a lily, which has one bud still to bloom. Hovering above is the Holy Spirit as a dove. The artist wrote at the bottom of the canvas the word “March,” likely alluding to the Feast of the Annunciation and its March 25th date.
While different lines, compositions, and colors were used by Martini and Memmi, Champaigne, and Rossetti, all three paintings capture the essence of the Annunciation. A unifying aspect is that all of the artists were interested in bringing realistic details to a holy story, furthering a viewer’s connection to it. These works, which were made across centuries, are a testament to the timelessness of the Annunciation subject to nurture the artist’s imagination.
