Well Easter is almost upon us again and March 25th, as well as being Good Friday, also happens to be the Feast of the Annunciation - the day the Angel Gabriel visited Mary and gave her the news she would bear a son through the intervention of the holy spirit. During my visits to art galleries in Britain and abroad over the years I've come across many Annunciation paintings, many of them commissioned to originally adorn the walls of monasteries and churches in the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Carlo Crivelli's huge and impressive painting in London's National Gallery comes to mind and when I visit I always search it out. It's attention to detail and mastery of mathematical perspective is always a marvel to me and I love the way it deals with a second subject connected to the life of St Emidius. It's rich in symbolism too.
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| Carlo Crivelli - The Annunciation - National Gallery London |
Fra Angelico's tranquil and simple Annunciation scene in a painting displayed in the quiet monastery corridors of San Marco, Florence, is another favourite and I can recall its detail now sitting at my desk.
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| Fra Angelico - Annunication - Monastery of San Marco, Florence |
The one I want to tell you about today though is special to me and part of its subject just happens to be one of my favourite fridge magnets; its shown below. I saw the painting and bought the magnet almost three years ago just after we'd bought our apartment in Umbria and made our first visit to the historic city of Perugia just 50km away from Citta della Pieve. Until that time I'd always associated the city with the terrible, violent murder of English student Meredith Kircher and the trial of her house mates Amanda Fox and Rafaello Sollecito - not exactly a subject I like to recall often and its a legacy Perugia doesn't deserve. But then we went to the city and it was a revelation, Not only does it have a spectacular hill top "centro historico" with splendid views over the surrounding countryside, it also has a wonderful cathedral and special civic buildings too. During that first trip we visited the National Gallery of Umbria in the Palazzo dei Priori just off the main piazza and it was a sublime experience. The art collection is a fine one and includes works of the Umbrian School of painting as well as pictures related to commissions undertaken for city churches and other buildings during the Renaissance. It's a must see stop off if you visit the city.
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My Annunication Fridge Magent from the National
Gallery of Umbrian Art - Perugia |
This is the fridge magnet I mentioned above and it shows a detail from the larger painting in the Perugia Art Gallery. A kneeling Angel Gabriel in one of the most wonderful pale blue robes kneels before the Virgin Mary who we can't see. Behind him is a beautiful receding columned arcade.
The Annunciation scene is part of a polyptych painted by the renowned Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. It was commissioned and produced as an altarpiece for the convent in Perugia known as Sant Antonio delle Monache - the Convent of St Anthony - and it remained there until 1810. Following Napoleon's invasion of Italy and his purging of religous institutions it was transferred to a picture gallery in the city.
The overall composition of the polyptych, as its seen now, was described by Vasari in the 16th century. In the centre the Madonna and Child is flanked by St Anthony of Padua and St John the Evangelist on the left and by St Elisabeth and St Francis on the right. Underneath there are, unusually, two predellas (strips of paintings), the upper one featuring St Clare and St Agatha and in the bottom one three miracle scenes including St Anthony bringing a boy back to life and another showing St Elisabeth saving a boy from a well. A further one shows the stigmata of St Francis.
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THE ST ANTHONY POLYPTYCH - PERUGIA ART GALLERY
BEFORE 1468 |
The Annunciation scene is at the top of the polyptych and has a stepped outline. It looks different to the rest of the art work and its shape and the fact that its stylistically at variance with the rest would suggest it was added later - its shape determined by the space available in the place wihere the altarpiece was displayed in the convent. Restoration work carried out on the painting in the 1990's supported the theory that it's a later addition to the main work.
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THE ANNUNCIATION SECTION OF THE ST ANTHONY POLYPTYCH
by PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
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The Angel Gabriel and the Virgin are placed in the foreground of the painting close to the picture plane. Between them is the illusory colonnade which gives the painting great depth - the depth also suggested by the red and white pavement. Its a beautifully painted picture and it creates in the viewer a feeling of serenity and peace.
Piero della Francesca (1415-1492) is one of my favourite Renaissance painters and I first came across his work at the National Gallery in London where his - Baptism of Christ in the Sainsbury Wing always draws large crowds.
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Self-Portrait of Piero della Francesco as it appears
in his painting "The Resurrection"
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He was born in a village called Sansepolcro in the Tiber valley, the son of a tanner, somewhere around 1415, but relatively little is known about his life. He seems to have led a quiet, provincial existence, though he probably studied under Veneziano in Perugia, in the late 1430's. He's not recorded though as belonging to any particular workshop. Most of his painting career appears to have been spent in his home town of Sansepolcro and in the Tuscan town of Arezzo- but he also did some freelance work in Rome, Ferrara and Urbino. Perugia was on the main route from Sanseplcro to Rome and an important centre of culture in the 15th century. As an accomplished artist it would have been appropriate for him to pick up a commission here. The St Anthony polyptych is a mature work in terms of his career.
As well as becoming an artist, however, Piero was a master geometrician producing a learned treatise on the rules of perspective. It's this combination of skills and insights which create his unique, alluring style. His paintings are underpinned by precisely worked out geometrical compositions which focus on horizontal and vertical lines, circles and triangles all arranged in a balanced and harmonious whole. The use of a clearly defined vanishing point in the centre of this composition (its right in the centre of blank arch at the end of the arcade) with all the orthogonal lines leading to it creates an impression of great depth behind the angel and the virgin. Careful use of light and dark colouring (the blue of the angel's robe I find just gorgeous) help create the peacful, tranquil atmosphere which exudes from the picture. Only the white dove surrounded by a golden shower representing the holy spirit is suggestive of movment in this momentous scene as it flutters towards the body of the virgin Mary.
I look at my little fridge magnet every day - but it's been a pleasure to have had the opportunity to consider the entire work again at this significant time of year in the Christian calendar. I hope you will enjoy it too.
PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING UP TO BECOME A REGULAR READER - THERE ARE GETTING ON FOR A HUNDRED POSTS HERE WRITTEN OVER SEVERAL YEARS - CHEERS. IAN
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