Mary from the scene of the Annunciation

The presented painting, together with the work inventoried under the number MNS/Szt/1046, comprise the scene of the Annunciation. Painted on board and framed in identical black frames, they depict: Our Lady and the Archangel Gabriel. They were probably incorporated into the wings of a small altar. Mary is depicted on the left panel wearing a red dress and blue-green cloak, with a white scarf on her head, which is surrounded by a luminous halo. The figure of Our Lady kneels on a kneeler with a lectern on which an open book lies. The scene is set in a dark room, in the depths of which two columns can be seen, with a propped-up curtain hanging between them. Mary leans back slightly, pointing her bowed head to the left and thus towards the Archangel Gabriel, pictured in the second image, who announces to her the news of the birth of the Son of God. With downcast eyes, a hand put to his chest and the other raised over an open book, he seems to humbly accept the messenger's words. A basket with sewing implements lies at her feet – white cloth and scissors – a reference to the Christian apocrypha, according to which the Archangel came to her while she was sewing a curtain for the temple. On the other hand, the motif of the open book symbolising Mary's wisdom and readiness to receive the Son of God had its origin in the Meditations of Pseudo-Bonaventure, an important mystical text for the late Middle Ages, produced in the circle of Franciscan teaching and later attributed to St Bonaventure. There, the chapter on the incarnation of Christ includes quotations from Isaiah concerning the sending of the Lamb and the descent of God, which contributed to the prevalence of depictions of Mary reading the Book of Isaiah during the Annunciation. Moreover, the sparing composition of the painting, with a strong accent on the columns in the background, finds many analogies in Italian and Italian-inspired painting of the second half of the 16th century, recalling, for example, paintings by Titian. Justyna Bądkowska