Top 10 Depictions of the Annunciation in Art

The history of art is full of pieces inspired by religion. This makes sense of course, since religion was an integral part of the human experience, interwoven throughout society in nearly every aspect. One of the most famous religious tales is that of the Annunciation. This is a Christian story in which the angel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary to inform her that God has chosen her to be the mother of Christ.

The Annunciation by Jan Van Eyck was the left panel of a triptych when it was first created. The painting is a testament to Van Eyck’s skill with oil paints. Oil paint made realism easier to produce on a canvas, as it dried slowly and was translucent, meaning it could be layered and blended to create realistic representations. In fact, Jan Van Eyck is often attributed to the invention of oil paint. However, the first recorded instance of oil paint being used was in the 7th century in Afghanistan. Still, Jan Van Eyck played an instrumental role in popularizing oil paints in Western Art during the 15th century.

In this work, the fabrics appear soft, falling in neat and crisp folds at the feet of the Virgin Mary and angel Gabriel. The blue of the Virgin’s gown symbolizes purity, royalty, and peace, while the angel Gabriel’s red robes symbolize passion and salvation. They are situated inside a contemporary church, which is symbolically constructed. In the back of the room, there is only one window and the area is dark, symbolizing the days of the Old Testament. Meanwhile, the area where the Virgin and angel Gabriel are situated is lit by the lower windows, symbolizing the New Testament and considered an instance of enlightenment.

They both stand on polished stone floors decorated with scenes of the Old Testament and the Zodiac. The Virgin Mary, disproportionately massive compared to the structure’s interior, stands on top of where Virgo would be located, the traditional sign with which she is associated. Meanwhile, the angel Gabriel stands where Aries would be located, likely symbolizing the month of March, when the Annunciation was believed to have occurred. Light streams down onto Mary from the windows as straight lines. The Annunciation was often painted this way, understood by contemporaries as rays in which the Holy Spirit rides.

This Panel Depicting the Annunciation of the Virgin by Catarina Bremselin was created in 1667. It is a rare example of surviving textiles from the 17th century, especially rare because of its surviving original border. It is a fairly straightforward depiction of the Annunciation.

The Virgin Mary is kneeling to pray with a halo around her head. The angel Gabriel enters from the right, to which the Virgin Mary holds her hands up in surprise. Between them is a vase of lilies, which traditionally symbolizes the purity of the Virgin Mary. Above the Virgin Mary is a canopy, traditionally used as a visual symbol of royalty. Royals would eat and take business under a canopy, a visual reminder of their status and power at court. In this instance, the canopy does not represent earthly royalty but heavenly royalty, as the Virgin Mary is considered the Queen of Heaven in Catholic lore. At the top of the artwork, a dove flies down on straight rays. These rays, of course, are the Holy Spirit, headed towards the Virgin Mary to impregnate her spiritually.

Bremselin’s technique in her depiction of the Annunciation is called lacis. It was a type of lacemaking that began with a grid of square netting and then was built off of with embroidery or other stitching. This technique is the oldest known technique of lacemaking, previously used for creating fishing nets and other practical items. Eventually, it became a typical lacemaking technique for ecclesiastical purposes, especially altar cloths, decorative hangings for the church, or other uses. The Art Institute of Chicago, where this artwork is housed, theorizes that Bremselin’s panel could have been a part of a much larger artwork.

The Annunciation by the Master of the Saint Barbara Legend is a panel in a larger triptych created in 1480. It shows the Virgin Mary and the angel Gabriel as classical statues in alcoves. However, they interact with one another rather than existing separately, allowing the narrative of the story to form. The Virgin Mary holds a book of prayers in her hands. It is cracked open, indicating she has been surprised by the interruption as the angel Gabriel flies to greet her and inform her of her divine duty. Beside her is a vase full of lilies, symbolizing her purity and reminding us that the Christian God favors those of pure body and mind. Gabriel’s wings are still spread out from his journey to visit Mary, so much so that they barely fit in the alcove, giving the representation of stiff stone a sense of movement.

7. The Annunciation by Johann Michael Düchert 

The Annunciation by Johann Michael Düchert was created in the 18th century in Germany. It is made of various materials, including carved ivory, ebony, and velvet, set in a gilded frame. The relief carving depicts the Virgin Mary kneeling at prayer in an elaborate space with grand windows, walls, and curtains. They appear to be situated at the top of a staircase, the railing visible behind the figures to the left. Mary’s hand is raised in surprise at the divine visit, her small and slender fingers cut especially delicately from the ivory. The angle of the lines on the floor, caused by the checkered pattern, indicates a deeper space than possible to create relief artwork.

This artwork was originally attributed to a German sculptor named Johann Paul Egell due to the carving style being incredibly similar to his own style. However, Egell usually worked on large-scale projects using different materials such as wood, stone, and stucco. It was later discovered that this artwork was not created by Egell himself but by one of his students, Johann Michael Düchert.

The Annunciation by Fra Angelo, painted in 1433, is a fresco located at the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy. It was one of many paintings that decorated the convent, which commissioned Fra Angelo for its interior decoration. The Virgin Mary is seated on a wooden bench when the angel Gabriel flies in to greet her. He bows to her, and she bows back slightly. His colorful wings have stripes that get lighter as the color rises. His knee is bent, allowing the folds of his robe to fall elegantly in the presence of God’s chosen Virgin. Halos surround their heads as they look at each other. Mary clutches her stomach as she is told of her destiny. The figures are situated strangely in their environment, too tall for the buildings if they were to stand fully and without vanishing points, causing them to appear as if they are placed on top of the background rather than within it.

Frescos were created by painting directly onto wet plaster. This would cause the pigment to bind with the plaster as it dried, essentially making it last forever unless damaged somehow. Frescos were especially revered during the Italian Renaissance as people began to look back to Classical values like humanism, which were then reflected in the arts through subject, form, and technique.

5. Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation 

Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation was likely one of his earlier paintings, in which the angel Gabriel swoops down with feathered wings to greet the Virgin Mary with a small bouquet of lilies. She greets the angel in return, holding her hand up as she turns the page of her prayer book, a contrast to her usual surprise compared to other depictions of the scene. However, a halo is already on her head, making the audience question the exact moment. Is she aware of her destiny yet, or not? The halo above her head is distinctly more pronounced than even the angel Gabriel’s, signifying her place in the heavens as being one of royalty. The Catholic tradition describes her as the Queen of Heaven, and da Vinci shows this hierarchy by giving the Virgin Mary a golden circle to her halo, while the angel Gabriel only sports rays of light.

The Annunciation by George Hitchcock is an experimental representation of the Virgin Mary in which she peruses a garden of white lilies. It is a simple scene with human representation that makes the Virgin Mary seem approachable while relying heavily on symbolism to enhance the contextual meaning of the painting. White lilies were traditionally the symbol of the Virgin Mary, as they symbolized purity, and God chose Mary to be the mother of his son and messenger based on her purity.

She is dressed in her typical blue attire, symbolizing purity, peace, and royalty. Her hair is covered, as was typical in early Christian tradition for married women, indicating she has already been married to Joseph. The garden of white lilies may symbolize the angel Gabriel himself in this context, with Hitchcock taking a more realistic spiritual approach to the subject. Behind her, a wall of foliage blocks her from the empty fields beyond, protecting her in her garden of lilies.

3. The Annunciation by an Unknown Chinese Artist 

An unknown Chinese artist created this print of the Annunciation in the 17th century and was a plate in Giulio Aleni’s An Illustrated History of the Lord of Heaven Who Became Incarnate in the Flesh in 1637. The illustrations in An Illustrated History of the Lord of Heaven Who Became Incarnate in the Flesh were based on Jerome Nadal’s Images from the Gospel, published in Antwerp in 1593.

Catholic woodblock cutters in China would usually recreate religious prints carefully, following the original design as closely as possible. This print is unique in that regard. There is a clear traditional Chinese influence in the design, especially in the clouds’ swirls in the print’s top left corner.

Robert Campin’s Annunciation Triptych, also called the Merode Altarpiece, is a great example of Northern Renaissance religious art. The Annunciation occurs in the middle panel. The setting is designed to look contemporary to 15th-century Flemish viewers in an attempt to make the religious figures more relatable. The Virgin Mary is seated on the floor next to the bench before a fireplace. She is reading a prayer book, leaning comfortably against the bench with the excess fabric of her robes folding around her in crispy pleats. A table behind her, though painted at an odd angle and scale, allows us to see an open book of hours.

The angel Gabriel lands next to her, the golden rays appearing behind him as they travel towards the Virgin Mary to deliver her fate. The Virgin Mary is unaware of the angel’s presence at the moment shown in the painting, as she has not yet even looked up from her reading to notice him.

The right panel shows Joseph working in his shop. He has built a mousetrap, which sits on the window sill and gives the viewer a peek into the city behind Joseph. It is a contemporary depiction of a 16th-century Flemish city. People in the city below are busy and bustling around, but Joseph tends to his work with focus. Tools lay on and below his workbench, indicating his position as a carpenter, as told in the Bible.

On the left of the triptych, the patrons who commissioned the triptych are presented. Art historians have studied the painting using technological advances and have found that the left panel was once occupied only by the husband, while the wife and the guard in the background were added later, likely due to the man marrying after the painting was already finished.

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Annunciation is an impressive example of the biblical story in art. Tanner grew up in Pennsylvania as the eldest son of a reverend in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His religious upbringing heavily influenced him, reflecting his artwork as an adult. In his Annunciation, the angel Gabriel is presented to the Virgin Mary as a column of light. Though the religious beliefs of his upbringing likely inspired his use of light for the angel Gabriel, he was inspired to create the painting after a visit to Egypt and Palestine in 1897. With a specialization in religious subjects in art, it was important to Tanner to see the region of Jesus’s birth and experience the culture and people of those still living there.

The event is taking place inside of a seemingly regular interior. There are pots in the alcove and on the floor. Woven carpets protect the home’s inhabitants from the cold, uneven stone. Tapestries keep the walls warm. Blankets and robes keep her body warm. Mary sits up in bed, the blankets spilling over the side onto the floor. She is eyeing the column of light with innocent curiosity, yet not fear. Henry Ossawa Tanner includes a typical symbol—the blue robe draped across the chest beside her. However, no other symbols mark her as the Virgin Mary besides the title of the painting. She is specifically portrayed as a humble peasant girl.