Mary of the Annunciation (Antonello da Messina)

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Mary of the Annunciation (Antonello da Messina)
Mary of the Annunciation
Antonello da Messina , around or shortly after 1475
oil on wood
45 × 34.5 cm
Galleria Regionale della Sicilia , Palermo

The Mary of the Annunciation , in the Italian name: Annunziata di Palermo , is a painting by Antonello da Messina from the early Renaissance . It is one of his main works, created at the height of his skill between 1474 and 1476. The small-format picture is one of the most valuable exhibits in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia in Palermo and one of the most famous, in one opinion the most famous painting in Sicily . Antonello succeeded in depicting the entire sequence of the Annunciation scene with the gestures and facial expressions of Mary in one picture.

Basic construction and technology

The figure is depicted in a three-quarter turn, typical of Antonello's individual portraits. The blue cape with the construction of two triangles was also used by Antonello for the depiction of Mary of the Annunciation in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich , which was made a year earlier in 1474 . Maria looks out of the picture, but not at the viewer, but at the Archangel Gabriel himself. This representation enabled Antonello to dispense with the archangel himself, which is otherwise necessary due to the underlying Bible passage. A frontal viewer of the picture must, in order to understand the programmatic sequence of the picture, imagine the archangel as standing or kneeling to his left.

The likewise unusually simple representation, not as usual and in later paintings by him with lush folds in brocade or gold background of the Madonna in representations by earlier artists follows Antonello's view of the scene of the Annunciation: he depicts it at the moment of the Annunciation as a simple Jewish one Woman who is initially surprised by the proclamation. The simple woolen garment with only a few heavy folds is a pioneering anticipation of the High Renaissance .

The diagonally placed lectern seems to break through the plane of the picture and open up to the viewer.

Antonello took over the symmetrical rigor of the picture from Piero della Francesca , whose works he got to know during a trip to Urbino in the 1460s .

The very restrained coloring and the simple background are also striking. Antonello wanted to focus the viewer on the emotions of Mary.

Antonello created the picture in oil on wood. He was the first Italian painter to introduce this technique into Italian painting, having learned it from Dutch artists. It was only through this change from the previously common tempera technique to oil that he was able to produce his pictures in the finely detailed manner that was typical for him.

Course of events

Bible quote from Luke

Antonello divided the underlying Bible passage from Luke's Gospel ( Lk 1.26–38  EU ) into sections of Mary's emotional impulses. The Gospel of Luke says: (26) In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth (27) to a virgin. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, who came from the House of David. The name of the virgin was Mary. (28) The angel came in to her and said: Greetings, you favored one, the Lord is with you. (29) She was shocked at the salutation and wondered what this greeting meant. (30) The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. (31) You will have a child, you will bear a son: you shall name him Jesus. (32) He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. (33) He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his rule will never end. (34) Mary said to the angel: How can this be done, since I do not know a man? (35) The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child will also be called holy and son of God. (36) Elizabeth, your relative, also had a son when she was old; although she was considered sterile, she is now in her sixth month. (37) For nothing is impossible for God. (38) Then Mary said, I am the handmaid of the Lord; happen to me as you said it would. Then the angel left her.

Open book and right hand

Verses 28 and 29 correspond to the open book, the pages of which do not remain lying, and the gesture of the right hand. While reading the book lying in front of her on the desk, Mary is obviously surprised and frightened by the appearance of the archangel. It is not known what exactly the letters visible indicate. According to Robert A. Gahl , it can be the passage in Isa 7,14  EU from the Old Testament , in which it is already announced that a virgin will conceive and give birth to the Son of God. The defensive gesture of the hand indicates her horror, and she has also looked up from the book. Antonello shortened the defensive hand in perspective in such a way that, next to the desk and the background, the effect of depth came into the picture.

Left hand

The left hand has also left the book and is holding the open cloak directly over the heart with the fingers pointing towards it. This relates to verse 30, the angel's address, her question (verse 34), and Gabriel's answer to it (verses 35 to 37). In the gesture, with the turn to herself, it is expressed that she understood both the connection between the statement of the book before her with her own person and the message or the preaching of the archangel with regard to her own fate.

Expression of the eyes and mouth

The next step is the representation of acceptance and submission to their predestination (v. 38). The eyes and mouth have neither the horror of the right hand nor the ultimately understanding posture of the left, both are already independent of this. The eyes, by no means frightened, gaze calmly and majestically down on the archangel. She has already fully accepted her role as the future mother of Jesus and is aware of her position as Queen of Heaven. The mouth reveals something similar, the lips are designed in a kind of supernatural smile and anticipation for the coming events, with which the arc closes and the scene of the announcement is closed. This facial expression allowed Antonello to dispense with the depiction of the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit , which would be common here.

Art historical appreciation

The picture has been described and appreciated many times. Highlighted are u. a. the simple, but sublime depiction of Mary, the maximum amount of emotion that Antonello was able to bring into the small picture, as charming and impressive, but also the carefully worked out psychological moments and the idealized beauty of the depicted.

literature

  • Bernard Berenson: The Italian Painters of the Renaissance. 2nd Edition. Phaidon, Zurich 1966.
  • Monica Bonechi (Ed.): Art and History Palermo and Monreale. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence 1999, ISBN 88-476-0218-1 .
  • Wolfgang Braunfels : Small Italian Art History. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1509-0 .
  • Patrick de Rynck: The art of reading pictures. The Old Masters decipher and understand (= The Art of Reading Pictures. Vol. 1). Parthas, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86601-695-6 .
  • Will Durant: Splendor and decay of the Italian Renaissance (= cultural history of mankind. Vol. 8). Südwest Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-517-00562-2 .
  • Robert A. Gahl, Jr .: “Tempo narrativo nell'Annunziata dell'Antonello da Messina” (Narrative Time in Antonello da Messina's L'Annunziata). Poetica e Cristianesimo, Convegno della Facoltà di Comunicazione Sociale, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Rome 2003 online at edcsuola.it .
  • Fritz Knapp : The artistic culture of the West. A history of art and artistic worldviews since the fall of the ancient world. 3 volumes. 3rd to 4th edition. Kurt Schroeder, Bonn et al. 1923.
  • Mauro Lucco (Ed.): Antonello da Messina. The complete work. Scientific director Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa. Belser, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-7630-2468-9 , p. 232
  • Max Semrau : The art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the north (= Wilhelm Lübke (Hrsg.): Grundriß der Kunstgeschichte. Vol. 3). 3rd (of the complete work 14th) edition. Paul Neff, Esslingen 1912.
  • Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting from 1300 to 1850. Könemann, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-8331-1310-3 .
  • Herbert Alexander Stützer: Painting of the Italian Renaissance (= DuMont's library of great painters ). DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1118-4 .
  • Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing. Special edition. Ullmann, Potsdam 2007, ISBN 978-3-8331-4582-7 .
  • Giorgio Vasari : Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Builders. From Cimabue to 1567. Edited and annotated by Ludwig von Schorn and Ernst Förster . marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-86539-224-4 .
  • Robert E. Wolf, Ronald Millen: Birth of the Modern Age (= art in the picture ). Naturalis-Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-88703-705-7 .
  • Manfred Wundram : Early Renaissance (= Art of the World. Series 2: The Cultures of the Occident. Vol. 28). 2nd Edition. Holle, Baden-Baden 1980, ISBN 3-87355-133-0 .
  • Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance. Art, architecture, history, masterpieces. DuMont, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8321-9113-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance. Art, architecture, history, masterpieces. 2008, p. 134.
  2. ↑ Monica Bonechi (ed.): Art and History Palermo and Monreale. 1999, p. 73.
  3. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting from 1300 to 1850. 2005, p. 35.
  4. ^ Peter Humfrey: The portrait in Venice of the 15th century. In: Keith Christiansen, Stefan Weppelmann (ed.): Faces of the Renaissance. Hirmer et al., Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-88609-706-7 , pp. 64-76, here: 48.
  5. ^ Hans Belting : Image and Cult. A history of the image before the age of art. Unchanged reprint of the 2nd edition. Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-37768-8 , pp. 389, 390 ( online) .
  6. ^ Robert A. Gahl, Jr .: “Tempo narrativo nell'Annunziata dell'Antonello da Messina” (Narrative Time in Antonello da Messina's L'Annunziata). 2003.
  7. ↑ Manfred Wundram: Early Renaissance. 1980, p. 220.
  8. ^ Robert A. Gahl, Jr .: “Tempo narrativo nell'Annunziata dell'Antonello da Messina” (Narrative Time in Antonello da Messina's L'Annunziata). 2003.
  9. ^ A b c Keith Christiansen in Antonello da Messina: Sicily's Renaissance master / Gioacchino Barbera , with contributions by Keith Christiansen and Andrea Bayer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Yale University Press New Haven London, 2005 on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name ISBN 0-300-11648-9 , p. 15 ( online )
  10. ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing. 2007, p. 361.
  11. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting from 1300 to 1850. 2005, p. 35.
  12. ↑ Manfred Wundram: Early Renaissance. 1980, p. 220.
  13. ↑ Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance. Art, architecture, history, masterpieces. 2008, p. 134.
  14. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting from 1300 to 1850. 2005, p. 35.
  15. ↑ Max Semrau: The art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the north. 1912, pp. 263-237.
  16. ^ Herbert Alexander Stützer: Painting of the Italian Renaissance , pp. 47–48.
  17. ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing. 2007, p. 361.
  18. ↑ Representation of the following sections mainly based on Robert A. Gahl, Jr .: "Tempo narrativo nell'Annunziata dell'Antonello da Messina" (Narrative Time in Antonello da Messina's L'Annunziata). 2003.
  19. ↑ Robert E. Wolf, Ronald Millen: Birth of the Modern Age. 1987, p. 54.
  20. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting from 1300 to 1850. 2005, p. 35.
  21. ^ Bernhard Berenson: The Italian painters of the Renaissance. 1966, p. 164.
  22. ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing. 2007, p. 361.

Web links

Commons : Madonnas by Antonello da Messina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files