Description
The Annunciation in the Louvre is the central panel of a triptych whose wings are probably not the work of the artist Rogier van der Weyden. His style is quite different from that of the Descent from the Cross and shows closer affinities to that of Jan Van Eyck . He even reproduces certain details familiar to us in the Arnolfini Portrait , including the red of the bedding and curtains and the carved copper chandelier. Instead of the famous convex mirror, the painting features a glowing copper medallion in the background. This is also an image replete with symbols in typical Campin style: lily, jug and basin for purifying water, representing the purity of the Virgin Mary; a bottle crossed by a ray of light that evokes the miraculous birth; an orange or "Chinese apple", fruit of the forbidden tree, reminding us of the need for Redemption; candles off, waiting for the arrival of the Light, that is, the word made flesh.
Since Jesus was born on December 25, this scene must have taken place around March 25. There is no fire in the fireplace and the windows are open.
The painting appears to have been designed to suit the Flemish taste for intimate domestic scenes, according to which painters were expected to portray religious subjects in familiar bourgeois interiors. However, this stems not from any concern with the minutiae of realistic detail, but from properly theological reasons.
The new religious trend in Flanders at the time was "modern devotio". This doctrine urged the believer to meditate on the humanity of Christ, representing it to himself in the context of his present life. In Rogier's painting, the contemporary setting, underscored by the absence of halos, is meant to draw the viewer in to effectively participate in the scene before him. That is why the angel Gabriel appears before Mary dressed in an immaculate alb and a magnificent brocade cape, as if he had come to celebrate mass rather than deliver a message.
The Annunciation of the Virgin's conception was one of the most popular themes in medieval times and that tradition continued into the Renaissance. Rogier Van Der Weyden was a painter born in the Walloon city of Tournai around 1400, but worked mainly in Brussels, dying there in 1464.
Van Der Weyden or de la Pasture, as he was known in his French mother tongue, was one of the most important artists among the Flemish Primitives, a name given to painters working in Flanders in the 15th century. However, he took his art far beyond the static images of the Gothic, towards the expression of deep emotions, even though he kept well in the restrained and realistic tradition of northern painting. The Pietà is the painting in which the art of painting evolved towards a more emotional form. Van Der Weyden did this while staying true to the spirit of his times and his land.
You have to imagine the urban landscapes that Van Der Weyden worked on. Flanders and northern France was the region where Gothic cathedrals and communal steeples, in which city charters were kept, dominated the skyline. The delicate and complex patterns of the huge carved windows of the cathedrals were combined with the austere straight lines of the small houses of the medieval cities of Bruges and Tournai. Here too, the spirit was clean and dedicated to commerce and industry, as in Florence. But the joy of the new wealth was expressed in religious themes even more than in Italy. While art and philosophers in Florence were discovering the inquisitive mind of man in a new consciousness, in which Platonic concepts were added to religion. Bruges and Tournai devoted themselves entirely to the pious glorification of God.
Rogier Van Der Weyden's Annunciation was still fully rendered in this earlier tradition of Gothic representation. An angel brings Mary the message that she is going to conceive. The angel is dressed in magnificent clothes, as worn by the princes of the church when they are in full ornamentation during the liturgy of the Catholic High Mass. The Virgin is kneeling, reading a book. This recalls the coming New Testament. But this particular article is also the continuation of a long tradition. Saint Anne, the mother of Mary, was often painted while teaching Mary to read. In scenes without Anne, Mary was still depicted reading or at a lectern. The book is the symbol of wisdom. Universities, such as the University of Leuven in Belgium, have taken the Virgin as their patron saint since the Middle Ages. Its emblem was an image of the Virgin seated with the infant Jesus on her lap, which also existed in wooden sculptures. These were called the "Sedes Sapientiae" or seats of wisdom.
In this painting, the interior of a Flemish room stands out, the Virgin's bedroom, in which many details of everyday life are represented. Windows are open on both sides of the room, adding an airy touch of open space to the image. But there are no shadows and very few elements are in darker tones: the same light coming from all directions illuminates the entire room. This effect was quite classic for the Flemish primitives. The effect underscores the transcendence of the lives of the Holy Figures: the painters wanted by these means to emphasize that these were not scenes from our world, but images of imagination and intense devotion. The faces and bodies of Angel and Mary are somewhat elongated, however thin, and even resemble each other.
The white lilies in the lower left corner have been said to be symbols of Mary's virginity. The Annunciation took place in spring according to the "Golden Legend", hence the motif of a flower in a vase. Spring is the season of revitalized nature, as the Annunciation would revitalize religion. The "Golden Legend" recalls that Mary lived in Nazareth and that Nazareth meant "flower"; That is why Saint Bernard said that the Flower wanted to be born from a flower in the flower season.
The red canopied bed in the background may be an allusion to the bed of aromatic herbs mentioned in the Song of Songs ('our bed is green'); in other paintings, the bed is painted green, and of course it is also a symbol of fertility. But the color green in late medieval times was reserved for the bedroom of queens and Mary was the Queen of Heaven. The general scene is static, but grace has been added by the slight movement of the bodies of the Virgin and the angel, and also in the movements of their hands.