The Virgin looks away from her Bible as the angel appears, bearing lilies. Engraving by C. Visscher after A. de Weerdt.

Bible. N.T. Luke 1.26-35. The Virgin reads at a table, in the side of which there is a small open door. Stairs are visible through the central door. The Bible, in which she reads one of Isaiah's prophecies of the birth of Christ, has a large lock on it. On the other side of the room, under the shade of the angel's clouds, there lie a loom, a stool and, in the left-most gloom, a pair of slippers. The Virgin's feet are bare. The loom refers to Mary's youth as a seamstress in the Temple (recounted in the Protevangelium of James); on the loom, see Réau, quoted below, p. 179

The attitudes and postures of the Virgin and the angel have varied significantly and even interchanged in Christian iconography. The plethora of differing images of the Annunciation provides a real insight into the history of emotion and its representation in gesture. The variations of the Virgin's posture provide much of the interest. Her hand is usually active; sometimes she is intently studying, sometimes she is in a gesture of almost carnal surprise. She may be glorified, or on the other hand she may kneel. Then the angel varies in relation to her: he might kneel before her. After the Council of Trent, the angel was set in the air, "reacting against", as Réau suggests, "the excessive 'familiarity' of religious art of the 15th century". On these issues, see L. Réau, 'Iconographie de l'art chrétien'. Presses Universitaires de France : Paris, 1957, vol. 2, book 2, pp. 178-187 (particularly p. 182)

[Amsterdam] : Claes Jansz Visscher

1 print : line engraving

In mense autem sexto missus est angelus. Gabriel a deo ad virginem cui nomen erat Maria. Luc 1. Adria de Weert ... inventor C. Visscher exc.

Wellcome Collection 21696i