Appropriate to post another Annunciation transcription today, the Feast of the Archangels (Gabriel, Michael and Raphael). This particular Renaissance Annunciation infuses Classical architecture into the Biblical story of the Gabriel’s announcement to Mary. The painting also shows off the artists’ knowledge of perspective in the way that the artist places the angel in the foreground and visually draws the viewer diagonally into the pictorial space through the gesture of the angel to Mary, and then to the un-slept-in bed behind her.
Annunciation after del Cossa, ©Michelle Arnold Paine 2012
The original Renaissance painting was completed in 1472 by Italian Francesco del Cossa and is currently in the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden, Germany. I love the green/pink complementary color opposition in the Angel Gabriel, and then the way that the the traditional blue of Mary’s robe is countered by a tiny piece of orange-ish wood to the left of her.
