My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
Annunciation
| Artist | Leonardo da Vinci |
|---|---|
| Year | c. 1472–1476 |
| Medium | Oil and tempera on poplar panel |
| Subject | The Annunciation |
| Dimensions | 98 cm × 217 cm (39 in × 85 in) |
| Location | Uffizi, Florence |
This 15th century painting – started two decades before Columbus’ voyage to America – is da Vinci’s first major work, completed while he was an apprentice. It depicts on of the most important scenes in the New Testament. Here we see the angel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary that she is going to miraculously conceive and give birth to a son – Jesus.
Luke 1: 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
This isn’t just *an* announcement. This is *the* Annunciation.
(If you’re not Catholic, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” is where “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you” comes from in the Catholic ‘Hail Mary’ prayer. The rest of that prayer comes from her conversation with Elizabeth later in the chapter.)
I really enjoy this painting and I think I would recognize it as a da Vinci without being told. There’s something about the way he paints faces and with perspective, that feels recognizable to me. I also enjoy his use of color and the way he portrayed the surrounding scene. He made this look like it might have happened somewhere in Tuscany – if not in Florence where he lived.
Anyway, it is not surprising that this religious scene would be a popular source of inspiration, in Western art. However, da Vinci might have the most famous version. There are a lot of fascinating details within the work, most of which will be covered below.
(more via wiki)
The Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1472–1476. Leonardo’s earliest extant major work, it was completed in Florence while he was an apprentice in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. The painting was made using oil and tempera on a large poplar panel and depicts the Annunciation, a popular biblical subject in 15th-century Florence. Since 1867 it has been housed in the Uffizi in Florence, the city where it was created. Though the work has been criticized for inaccuracies in its composition, it is among the best-known portrayals of the Annunciation in Christian art.
Description
The subject matter of the work is drawn from Luke 1.26–39. It depicts the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would conceive miraculously and give birth to a son to be named Jesus and called “the Son of God”, whose reign would never end. The subject of the annunciation was very popular for contemporaneous artworks painted in Christian countries such as Italy and had been depicted many times in Florentine art, including several examples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. Details of the commission for the painting and its early history remain obscure. Since the painting was brought to the Uffizi from the Olivetan monastery San Bartolomeo, scholars have suggested that it might have been the monastery’s monks who commissioned the artwork for their sacristy after the church’s renovation in 1472.
The marble table in front of Mary probably is derived from the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which Verrocchio had sculpted during this same period. Of great refinement is the semi-transparent veil under the book of the Holy Scriptures that the Virgin is reading, symbol of the prophecies of the Old Testament. The text on which Mary rests her right hand shows Latin alphabetical characters and abbreviations of the Lexicon abbreviaturarum, used by scribes since the Middle Ages, without the sequence of letters written on the page having any meaning: the Virgin, in all probability, seems to be meditating on the shape of the letters according to a mystical mode of spiritual reading. The angel holds a Madonna lily, a symbol of Mary’s virginity and of the city of Florence.
It is presumed that, being a keen observer of nature, Leonardo painted the wings of the angel to resemble those of a bird in flight, but later, the wings were lengthened dramatically by another artist.
Although this is the earliest known commissioned painting by Leonardo, it has been pointed out that the painting already bears characteristics that are described as demonstrating the signature innovations he introduced in his paintings: sfumato and atmospheric perspective. The architectural features are drawn according to the rules of perspective, with a central vanishing point. There are some anomalies, such as the Virgin’s right arm appearing to be extended. This could be a reflection of Leonardo’s early research into optics, which takes into consideration a lateral viewpoint – and lowered due to the initial location of the painting over a side altar in a Church.
Leonardo’s painting of the Annunciation is distinguishable from conventional portrayals. The scene occurs in an open courtyard with an expansive view of the Tuscan landscape and seascape in the background. He used chiaroscuro to depict the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, employing a modeling technique to soften their forms. Various references in the painting tie together themes of life, death, and rebirth. The Annunciation explores nature, devoting ten attributes to sight: darkness and brightness, substances and color, form and space, remoteness and nearness, and movement and rest.
Modern history
In 1867, the Annunciation, housed at the Olivetan monastery of San Bartolomeo near Florence, was brought to the Uffizi. Initially, it was attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who, like Leonardo, studied in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. However, in 1869, Karl Eduard von Liphart, a prominent figure in the German art community in Florence, specified the painting as a youthful work by Leonardo. This was one of the first earliest representatives of a surviving piece to the young Leonardo. Subsequently, a Leonardo drawing at the Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford collection was recognized as a preparatory drawing for the angel’s sleeve, providing further evidence of the attribution to Leonardo.
Controversy
On March 12, 2007, the painting was at the center of a furor between Italian citizens and the Minister of Culture, who decided to loan the painting for an exhibition in Japan.
The painting has only been moved from the museum three times in history: for exhibitions in Paris and Milan in the 1930s, and safekeeping during the Second World War. Approximately 300 politicians and art experts wrote to Francesco Rutelli, urging him to halt the transfer.
The painting was transported to Tokyo under strict security measures and was displayed in a custom glass and aluminum frame. It was exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum that once showcased another of Leonardo’s works in the 1970s: the Mona Lisa.
For a great review of the painting, please let me direct you to the following video:
