The Annunciation

Gabriel and Mary are presented within an elaborately furnished interior that would have been familiar to sixteenth-century viewers. However, most of the objects, arranged unobtrusively within the room, carry symbolic meaning. The altarpiece and the woodcut on the wall, for example, show Old Testament prophets as prefigurations of New Testament themes. Influenced by Italian art, Joos appropriated a new canon of beauty, a new repertory of rhetorical gesture, and a striking grace of movement in his figures.
The Artist: For a biography of Joos van Cleve, see the Catalogue Entry for The Holy Family (32.100.57).

The Subject of the Painting: In a well-appointed domestic interior, the angel Gabriel suddenly appears, interrupting the Virgin in the midst of her daily devotions. As described in the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:26–38), Gabriel has come at God’s behest to announce to Mary that she will conceive and give birth to a son, who will be called Jesus. The dove, or Holy Spirit, descends upon the Virgin at the same moment that Gabriel’s raises his right hand in blessing. The use of actual gold in the painting is limited to the rays of the dove and the flame of the candle at the upper left. As the room is flooded with natural light from the open window, the purpose of the lit candle is not to provide illumination, but instead to signal the presence of God at the Incarnation.[1]

Although the Virgin’s bedchamber is replete with objects of symbolic significance, just as in Joos’s Holy Family (32.100.57), these are displayed unobtrusively, as if naturally part of a sixteenth-century household setting in Antwerp. Such a robust presentation has a precedent in fifteenth-century painting, namely in the Annunciation of the Merode Altarpiece (56.70a–c), but it never became commonplace. The multiple references of everyday material goods to biblical narratives and doctrines of faith are intended to guide the viewer through his or her devotional meditations. The Virgin kneels at her prie-dieu, reading from a lavishly illustrated Book of Hours. Her private worship, likewise, could also take place at the house altar behind her. It shows Abraham and Melchizedek, Old Testament prefigurations of the Last Supper, on the exterior wings, and a partial view of the New Testament story of the Adoration of the Magi at the birth of Christ on the interior. A similar juxtaposition of Old and New Testament references are in the hand-colored woodcut, tacked to the wall, of Moses holding the Ten Commandments beside the chandelier, a symbol of the Virgin (Panofsky 1935, p. 453 n. 32). The placement of the dove between the Moses print and the Virgin suggests a transition from the era under law, indicated by the Ten Commandments held by Moses, to the era under grace, initiated by the Incarnation (Hand 2004, p. 198). Allusions to Mary’s chastity and purity are further signaled by the lilies in the vase, and the basin and ewer with the white folded towel. The Virgin’s nuptial bed (called the thalamus virginis), with its fancy tasseled canopy, gold-framed mirror, and casually placed pillow refer as much to a contemporary well-to-do Antwerp residence as they do to the familiar setting for the Annunciation. Read more...
(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)