Eyck’s Annunciation

I first saw this painting
in a book, printed in
black and white
.
It was difficult to see
so I looked it up online.
The image above is from
The National Gallery of Art
.
After thinking
about how difficult
it was to see a three foot
tall painting printed in a book
(a long narrow rectangle
in shades of gray!)
,
I decided
to create a little
tour of this work.
Hopefully this will still
look good on the smallest
smart-phone display
.

Want to
Take a Tour
???

-=< O >=-

To set
the stage,
Jan van Eyck has
painted a biblical scene
called The Annunciation,
which is described in
Luke’s gospel
.

Here is the
relevant passage
:

…
God
sent the angel
Gabriel to Nazareth, a
town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to
a man named Joseph, a
descendant of David.
The virgin’s name
was Mary
.
The angel
went to her and
said, “Greetings, you
who are highly favored!
The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly
troubled at his words
and wondered what
kind of greeting
this might be
.
But the
angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid,
Mary; you have
found favor
with God
.
You will conceive
and give birth to a
son, and you are
to call him
Jesus
.
He will be great
and will be called
the Son of the
Most High
…

LUKE 1:26-32

Notice that
the text says
Gabriel arrived
in the town of
Nazareth,
but
the artist has
moved the scene
into a great cathedral.
This allows him to place
symbolic elements into
the setting, giving us
clues about how to
interpret the
meaning
.

-=< O >=-

Ok,
that’s
enough
background.
Let’s Zoom In!

If you
look closely
at the painting,
you might notice that
he has painted words
near the two faces
.
These are
Latin translations
of the bible verses
.

The angel says,
AVE GRÃ. PLENA
“Hail, full of grace…”

Mary replies,
ECCE ANCILLA DÑI
“Behold the handmaiden
of the Lord”

Since
Mary’s words
were spoken to God,
Eyck painted them
UPSIDE DOWN
so God could
read them
!!!

try dragging
the slider below

-=< O >=-

While we’re here,
look at Mary’s face
.
She has just been
informed that she’s
going to have a baby,
even though she’s
never been with
a man
.
The artist has
done a fine job of
making me wonder
what Mary is feeling
at this moment
.
She looks
directly into
our eyes
.
If I had to
guess her mood,
I don’t imagine she
is feeling joy
(yet)
.

-=< O >=-

Mary’s reaction
might be the central
emotion of this painting,
but Eyck has given us
a lot more to see
.

Let’s
zoom back
up to the top
…

The upper third of this painting
seems more dark and empty
than the rest of it, and our
attention is drawn
to the windows
.
The single window
facing us is stained glass;
an image of God standing
on the globe beneath
two red Cherubim
(Ezekiel 10)
.
He is standing
on the earth, or
on a globe, with
the label “Asia”
facing us
.

This is what
the LORD says:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is
my footstool
.
Where
is the house
you will build
for me
?
Where will
my resting
place
be
?

ISAIAH 66:1

-=< O >=-

There are
wall paintings on
both sides of the window.
The image on left side shows
the baby Moses being rescued
from the river by the Egyptian
Pharaoh’s daughter, and to the
right side of the window is
a graphic showing Moses
receiving the Ten
Commandments
.
Moses pre-figured
the promised Messiah
by freeing his people from
slavery, and re-establishing
their relationship
to God
.
(as Jesus does)

The roof
is in poor repair,
and several boards are
missing from the ceiling.
Was that the general state
of churches in the 1400’s
?
Or is the artist trying
to say something
???

but let’s
move on…

-=< O >=-

Letting our
attention move from
the top of the painting
with its central image
of God to the scene
unfolding below,
it feels like we
are traveling
through
time
.
Even the
architecture
of the building
reflects the change
from old to new
.
The columns
in the upper level
with their rounded
arches are the old
Roman style,
but
the columns
in the lower level
with pointed arches
are the newer
Gothic style
.

Are we supposed
to notice the contrast
between the single stained
glass window in the higher
level, and the much clearer
triple windows illuminating
the scene below
?
Is the artist
planting an idea
with this imagery
?
Is he showing us
the moment where
our relationship with
a single God blossomed
into The Trinity
?
If so,
this is the
moment where
the third member
of the Trinity is
introduced
:

Father God
Holy Spirit
Son Jesus

-=< O >=-

From the side window,
seven golden rays descend
from ‘God-level’ to our level,
the center ray carrying a
dove directly to Mary
.
(Gold paint was
used in other areas,
but the artist applied
Gold leaf on the rays)

This dove
symbolizes
the Holy Spirit
.
Since it
hasn’t arrived
at Mary yet, we
are viewing the
moment before
.

“How will this be,”
Mary asked the angel,
“since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered
,
“The
Holy Spirit will
come on you, and
the power of the
Most High will
overshadow
you.
So the
holy one
to be born
will be called
the Son of God.

LUKE 1:34-35

These
bible verses
are (literally),
“The Annunciation”

which means
the announcement,
the proclamation, or
the declaration
.

-=< O >=-

Let’s
look at the
angel Gabriel
for a moment
.
He is always the
“messenger” angel in
the bible, but the way
he is portrayed in this
painting might be
misleading
.
Angels in the bible are always
described as looking like us, but
Jan has given the angel wings of
rainbow-colored peacock feathers
.

Nowhere in the entire bible
are angels ever described
as having wings
.
In some bible stories, the
angels look so much like us
that people don’t recognize
them as being angels
!

“Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have
entertained angels
unawares.”

HEBREWS 13:2

-=< O >=-

The use
of peacock feathers
originates with Ancient
Greeks, who believed
that peacock flesh
didn’t decay
after death
.
Peacock feathers
became a symbol
of immortality
.
The rainbow colors
remind us of the story
of Noah’s Ark, and
God’s promise
to a family
after
being
delivered
from destruction
.
Many
of the symbols
in this painting
are related to
deliverance
.

-=< O >=-

It appears that
Mary was reading a book
before the angel appeared
.
Zooming in
we can tell that it’s
an illuminated manuscript
(the pages are decorated in color)
.
Here’s a better view,
but I don’t have much to say
about it, except to comment
that if I was wearing a long
flowing robe while reading
a book, I don’t know why I
would drape my robe over
half the table, and under-
neath only one side
of the book
.
I’m wondering if
he painted it that way
so that we would know
it was more than just
“a book in the room”
.
By positioning
Mary’s robe in this way,
we know that she had
been reading before
the visitation
.

-=< O >=-

The lilies stand for purity
and have become a symbol
of the Virgin Mary, as well as
her blue clothing trimmed
in ermine, which was
reserved for royalty
.
(Mary was in
the royal line
of King David)
.
Noticing that there
are seven open blooms
(and seven rays above)
reminds us that the number
seven traditionally suggests
completeness, and some-
times represents
perfection
.

-=< O >=-

Jan van Eyck
has painted several
scenes in the floor tiles
.
Two of the panels
are complete images,
but distorted by the
artist’s perspective
.
I used image processing
software (PaintShop Pro) to
convert the diamond shapes
to rectangular, so we can
see them better
:

The first panel
is a portrayal of
David slaying Goliath
.

The second panel shows
Samson destroying the
Philistine temple
.
Other panels
show portrayals of
Samson killing Philistines,
The killing of Abimelech,
Samson and Delilah, and
the death of Absalom
.
(more Destruction
and Deliverance)

-=< O >=-

In our final detail,
we see a footstool dominating
the foreground of the painting.
Is this an echo of the stained
glass window at the top
?

“Heaven
is my throne,
and the earth
is my footstool
.
Where is the
house you will
build for me
?
Where will
my resting
place be
?

WITH US!

If the artist has used
this footstool intentionally,
I suspect that he’s illustrating
“The Good News”

God
has moved
from being a
global presence
STANDING OVER
the world, to being
a local presence
LIVING IN
the world
.

Welcome,
Jesus
!!!

-=< O >=-

I hope you enjoyed
this Virtual Tour of
Jan Van Eyck’s

The
Annunciation

-=< O >=-

(and now you know
where the image for this
postage stamp came from)

-=< O >=-

The National Gallery of Art
hosts a high-resolution
scan of this painting,
which is where I
generated the
detail images
for this article
.
If you want to visit,
click the button below and
then click on the painting.
You can pan and zoom to
see areas in higher
magnification
.

-=< O >=-

More information
on this painting can be
found in the publication, 
Early Netherlandish Painting
.
It’s available as
a free PDF from the
National Gallery of Art
.
The Annunciation
is on pages 76–86, by
John and Oliver Hand
and Martha Wolff
.
(70MB DOWNLOAD)

-=< O >=-

On many paintings,
Van Eyck often included
his personal motto along
with his signature:
“Als ich chan”
.
It means
“As best I can”

-=< O >=-