Annunciation

This work represents one of the most important scenes of Christian worship. This is the moment when the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah promised by God.

In this case, is evoked the moment when Mary asks the archangel how she can give birth to a son if she is still a virgin. He answers that it is by grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, while kneeling, the archangel points his hand upward

Surrounded by two angels and several cherubs, we see the Holy Spirit at the top of the image, which appears in the form of a white dove that emerges from a cluster of clouds and emits rays of golden light, elements that allude to its divine character.

A fourth figure draws attention: at the top is suggested the figure of God Father, whose we see the right arm. The rest of its body is barely noticeable due to subtle color changes.

When the archangel appeared to Mary, she was praying. In this case, she is shown kneeling in front of a book. Although it is not seen in detail, the text represented in this iconography is usually that of Isaiah, where it is foreshadowed that the Virgin would give birth to the Messiah.

The presence of two works that represent this scene in the collections of the current Santa Clara Museum indicates the importance that the iconography of the Annunciation had for the colonial society of Santafé and, especially, for the nuns who inhabited the Clarian convent.

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