Roque de Balduque
Cáceres Altarpiece: Detail, The Annunciation
1547-51
Cáceres Cathedral, Cáceres, Spain
The subject is easily recognized by the two figures and the Father above, but Balduque departs from the traditional iconography in a number of ways. There is no dove on a sunbeam. The vase has no flowers. Mary is kneeling, but apparently not at a prie-dieu. The angel wears a cuirass over a short tunic, like a Roman soldier, although his foot is bare. The column behind Mary's right shoulder provides only the most tenuous architectural separation between the figures.
The curtain in the upper right and the prevalence of fabrics along the right side may refer to Mary's work on the Temple curtain in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.
View the entire altarpiece.
Read more about the Annunciation.
Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.