Annunciation

The Annunciation, episode depicted in this work, is one of the most important moments in Christianity. In it, the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is pregnant with a child whom she must name Jesus, as he will be the Messiah promised by God.

In this case, we see the third moment, interrogatio, in which Mary asks the archangel how she can give birth to a son if she is a virgin. She, dressed in the red tunic and blue cloak with which she is usually depicted, places her right hand on her chest.

To Our Lady’s question, the angel, pointing upwards with his forefinger, replies that such pregnancy is the work of the Holy Spirit

Surrounded by four angels, between golden rays and a cluster of clouds —pictorial resources that suggest a divine presence— the Holy Spirit emerges in the upper part of the painting, represented as a white dove.

In addition to the interaction of the characters, two elements announce the Virgin’s pregnancy: on one hand, the folds of Mary’s tunic at the level of the stomach suggest a bulging belly, as if Mary were already pregnant.

On the floor, at the back of the room, there is an object that appears to be a cradle covered with white blankets, another element that possibly alludes to the birth of Jesus nine months after this episode.

Before the interrogatio, Mary was praying. In the painting, she is shown kneeling while one of her hands rests on a book. The text usually depicted in this iconography is that of Isaiah, which foreshadows the birth of Jesus from the womb of the Virgin.

Images like this were widely reproduced in colonial America, in most cases from the multiple engravings of this subject that circulated between Europe and the New World.

Considering the gestation time of the Child Jesus, the faithful celebrate this episode every March 25, nine months before the day of his birth, December 25.