The Annunciation

Through a richly ornamented architectural frame we see the Virgin Mary kneeling in her bedchamber in front of a small altar with a book opened up. Turning toward the angel floating down behind her, she piously crosses her hands and lowers her eyes. The Virgin is depicted here as an upper-class woman dressed in a sumptuous, blue cape with violet sleeves, while the radiant halo encircling her head indicates her sanctity. The angel is clad in a pearl-inlaid vestment and holds a sceptre in his hand. The dove hovering above the Virgin’s head symbolizes God’s presence and the Immaculate Conception. We are witnessing the moment the angel Gabriel tells her that she will give birth to the Son of God. The Virgin humbly accepts and praises the announcement, as described in Luke 1:38: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” The lilies in the foreground symbolize the Virgin’s purity and the Immaculate Conception.

Bernard van Orley is regarded as one of the most important Flemish painters in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance north of the Alps. One of the first artists to visit Italy and be inspired by the ideals of the Renaissance, he was hailed by his contemporaries as the “Raphael of the Low Countries”. His paintings are typified by their meticulous details and vivid colours. He also emphasized a sense of space influenced by the Renaissance’s interest in linear perspective and the architecture of antiquity. Van Orley ran a large studio with many assistants in both Antwerp and Brussels. He served intermittently as a court painter, first for Margaret of Austria, the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, and subsequently for her successor, Mary of Hungary.