Description
The Annunciation in the Louvre is the central panel of a triptych whose wings were probably not painted by Rogier van der Weyden. Its style is quite different from that of The Descent from the Cross and shows closer affinities with that of Jan van Eyck. It even reproduces certain details familiar to us from The Arnolfini Portrait, including the red bed linens and curtains and the carved copper chandelier. Instead of the famous convex mirror, the painting features a gleaming copper medallion in the background. This image is also replete with symbols in the style typical of Campin: a lily, a pitcher and a basin for purifying water, representing the purity of the Virgin Mary; a flask pierced by a ray of light, evoking the miraculous birth; an orange, or “Chinese apple,” fruit of the forbidden tree, reminding us of the need for Redemption; and extinguished candles, awaiting 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 seems to have been designed to suit the Flemish taste for intimate domestic scenes, in which painters were expected to portray religious subjects in familiar bourgeois interiors. This, however, does not stem from any concern with the minutiae of realistic detail, but from strictly theological reasons.
The new religious trend in Flanders at the time was the “devotio moderna”. This doctrine urged believers to meditate on Christ’s humanity, imagining it for themselves in the context of their present lives. In Rogier’s painting, the contemporary setting, underscored by the absence of halos, is intended to draw viewers in so that they can actively participate in the scene before them. That is why the angel Gabriel appears before Mary dressed in an immaculate alb and a magnificent brocade cope, 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 the medieval period, and the tradition continued into the Renaissance. Rogier Van Der Weyden was a painter born in the Walloon city of Tournai around 1400, but he worked mainly in Brussels and died there in 1464.
Van Der Weyden, or de la Pasture, as he was known in his native French, was one of the most important artists among the Early Netherlandish painters, 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 style, toward the expression of deep emotions, while remaining firmly within the restrained, realistic tradition of Northern painting. The Pietà is the painting in which the art of painting evolved toward a more emotional form. Van Der Weyden achieved this while remaining true to the spirit of his time and homeland.
We must imagine the urban landscapes in which Van der Weyden worked. Flanders and northern France were the regions where Gothic cathedrals and communal belfries, which housed the cities’ charters, dominated the horizons. The delicate, intricate designs of the cathedrals’ enormous carved windows were combined with the austere straight lines of the little houses in the medieval cities of Bruges and Tournai. Here, too, the spirit was clear and devoted to commerce and industry, as in Florence. But the joy of newfound wealth was expressed in religious themes even more than in Italy. While artists and philosophers in Florence were discovering the inquisitive mind of humanity in a new awareness that incorporated Platonic concepts into religion, Bruges and Tournai devoted themselves entirely to the pious glorification of God.
Rogier van der Weyden’s The Annunciation was still firmly rooted in this earlier tradition of Gothic representation. An angel brings Mary the message that she is to conceive. The angel is dressed in magnificent garments, like those worn by church princes in full ceremonial vestments during the Catholic High Mass. The Virgin is kneeling and reading a book. This points to the coming New Testament. But this particular subject also continues a long tradition. Saint Anne, Mary’s mother, was often depicted teaching Mary to read. In scenes without Anne, Mary was still shown reading or beside a lectern. The book is a symbol of wisdom. Since the Middle Ages, universities such as the University of Leuven in Belgium have adopted the Virgin as their patroness. Their emblem was an image of the Virgin seated with the child Jesus on her lap, a subject that also appeared in wooden sculptures. These were called “Sedes Sapientiae,” or seats of wisdom.
In this painting, the interior of a Flemish room stands out: the Virgin’s bedchamber, in which many details of everyday life are depicted. The windows are open on both sides of the room, giving the image an airy sense of open space. 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 typical of the Early Netherlandish painters. It underscores the transcendence of the lives of the holy figures: painters wanted to emphasize through these means that these were not scenes from our world, but images born of imagination and intense devotion. The faces and bodies of the angel and Mary are somewhat elongated, slender, and even resemble one another.
It has been said that the white lilies in the lower-left corner symbolize Mary’s virginity. According to The Golden Legend, the Annunciation took place in spring, hence the flower in a vase. Spring is the season when nature is revitalized, just as the Annunciation would revitalize religion. The Golden Legend recalls that Mary lived in Nazareth and that Nazareth meant “flower”; for this reason, Saint Bernard said that the Flower wished to be born of a flower in the season of flowers.
The red canopy bed in the background may allude 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 it is, of course, also a symbol of fertility. But in the late Middle Ages, green was reserved for the bedchambers of queens, and Mary was the Queen of Heaven. The overall scene is static, but the slight movement of the Virgin’s and the angel’s bodies, as well as the movements of their hands, lends it grace.