Day 197 - Two French Annunciations

October 15, 2019

When I arrived at the museum, I wasn't pleased to find that galleries 537 through 543 were all closed. I had a pleasant conversation with one of the volunteers staffing an information desk, who urged me to go see a special exhibition about the armor of Maximilian I. I was tempted --on the crosstown bus I'd just had a conversation with an acquaintance who told me she'd heard that the armor show is great --  but the show is also sizable, and my time was limited. So I moved on to gallery 544. which centers on the Renaissance in France, between 1480 and 1600. On display are works in a number of media: Limoges enamels (both religious subjects and portraits), some small oil portraits on wood (I'm struck by the ubiquity of beards in these portraits), a huge fireplace, stained glass, and carved oak doors and panels from choir screens. 

I thought it would be interesting to compare two Annunciations, a Limoges enamel produced in the first half of the 16th century and a stained glass panel made in Paris around 1550. Although executed with a few decades of each other, the two works seem to me a world apart stylistically.  The enamel strikes me as an object produced during the waning of the Middle Ages, whereas the stained glass scene exhibits what I think of as key attributes of Renaissance art. 

The fundamental action of the Annunciation is depicted in the same way in both works: a winged Gabriel on the right addresses Mary, who is sitting at her prie-dieu on the left reading a prayer book. Above the two figures hovers a dove representing the Holy Spirit. A banner in both scenes bears the words "Ave Maria gratia plena." The palette in both works is similar: blue, deep red, gold, green. A classical temple appears in both scenes: In the enamel, it is in the background; in the stained glass window, the central action seems to take place within such a temple.

But beyond these similarities, there are also basic differences. The enamel, which is only about 11 inches high and 18 inches wide, is crammed with detail. Some of the iconography is familiar to me, including the vase holding lilies, symbolic of Mary's purity. But I've never seen an Annunciation crowded with so many additional angels (if the nude children hovering above Gabriel and Mary are indeed cherubim). God the Father also appears at the top of the scene, his right hand raised in blessing, his left hand holding a golden orb. Beyond all this, raised gilded dots frame the scene. The composition is united to some extent by the brilliant blues that appear in the columns of the temple, the vase, the angel's wings, and the semicircle surrounding God the Father. But really, there is so much going on in it that I hardly know where to look. 

In contrast, the composition of the scene shown in the stained glass window, which is about 6 feet high and 5 feet wide, is straightforward.   Gabriel, Mary, and the dove form a triangle, and the eye is drawn to the strong diagonals formed by the angel's'  light-colored arm and the dove  on the right and by the line between that dove and Mary's haloed head on the left.  Moreover, the figures have a real weight and solidity that I associate with Italian Renaissance artists from Giotto on. I am not surprised to learn that the work is based on a cartoon by Raphael.