Mathis Grünewald
The Annunciation
1512-16
Oil on panel, 105.9 x 55.9 in. (269 x 142 cm.)
Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar
According to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Mary "was always engaged in prayer and in searching the law." To emphasize her prayerfulness as well as her "searching" in scripture the artist has modeled the interior space after a chapel in a Gothic church and pictured her lost in prayer before a book open to a prophecy of the virgin birth of the Savior.
The pages in the book read, Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur nomen eius emmanuel butyrum et mel comedet ut sciat reprobare malum et / eligere bonum [and then repeating:] Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur nomen eius emmanuel, "Behold the virgin will conceive and will bear a child, and his name will be called Emmanuel; He will eat butter and honey that he may reprove evil and choose the good" (Isaiah 7:14-15). See below for a close-up of the book. In the upper corner a statue of another prophet holds what could possibly be another prophecy, but I cannot make out the words.
The dove's entering with the light from the window is a reference to the poems and theological commentaries that compare the virginal conception to light that passes through glass without changing it.
Read more about images of the Annunciation.
Source of pictures: this page at Wikimedia Commons.
