The Annunciation

A passage from the New Testament (Luke I, 26-38) that tells of the annunciation of the Virgin´s motherhood by the Archangel Gabriel and the incarnation of Christ in Mary by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. The burning bush, which appeared to A passage from the New Testament (Luke I, 26-38) that tells of the annunciation of the Virgin´s motherhood by the Archangel Gabriel and the incarnation of Christ in Mary by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. The burning bush, which appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and burned without being consumed by the fire, symbolizes the virginity and purity of Mary. On the left, on a book stand, is the book the Virgin was reading with Gabriel appeared, along with the sewing basket, an allusion to the veil of the Temple that Mary was sewing at that time, according to the Armenian Gospel of Childhood. The angelical musicians appear like happy witness to the scene.
In 1596 El Greco was commissioned to paint the high altar of the Colegio de la Encarnación (Madrid), an Augustinian seminary better known by the name of its founder, Doña María de Córdoba y Aragón (1539-1593).The central part of the bottom section of the altarpiece featured The Annunciation, which had the Adoration of the Shepherd (now in Bucharest) an the Baptism of Christ on either side of it, scenes of the Resurrection and of Pentecost. With the exception of Pentecost, each of these subjects had been painted previously by El Greco, some of them during his Italian period, However, here they are taken up again from a perspective that is particularly original; a perspective that is particularly original; a perspective that is steeped in a more “expressionist” spirituality, and which from 1600 became even more personal and disconcerting, intentionally distanced from contemporary painting.
El Greco painted the scenes in small spaces, emphasizing the vertical format, and bathing them in a ghostly light that enhances the unreality of the figures, which are arranged in a very marked foreshortening and have very expressive features. The colours-cold, intense and contrasting- are applied very loosely over powerful anatomical constructions, and are perfect examples of El Greco’ s highly personal style in the final stretch of his career.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

painting by El Greco in the Museo del Prado (Museum: Museo del Prado)