The Annunciation, by Jan Van Eyck. Painted around 1434 to 1436. Oil on canvas transferred from panel. The painted surface is about 3 feet high by just over a foot wide.
This description is about 4 minutes long.
Two colorfully robed white people, from the Biblical story of the Annunciation, are side by side in a dimly lit church: the winged angel Gabriel on the left and Mary on the right.
Their heads are about halfway up the canvas: above them are the soaring architectural features of the church – stone columns, arches, and windows; below their feet is a tiled floor. The painting is meticulously detailed, including contrasting textures of fabric, flesh, glass, and stone.
Let’s focus on the individuals first then move on to the background.
Gabriel stands at the left, with his body angled to our right and facing in that direction. His wings, in horizontal bands of rainbow colors, curve back from his shoulders. He has a pink-cheeked, smiling face, and downcast eyes and pale skin; shoulder length strawberry blond hair falls in ringlets to each side. On his head is a gold crown, studded with ruby red and sapphire blue gemstones and pearls. He wears a long brocade cape with a raised pattern of crimson red flowers against a metallic silver background; it hangs in folds to the floor. The front opening of the cape is edged with more glowing gemstones. The angel’s left knee is raised slightly: this allows a glimpse of another floor-length robe under the cape, in gold brocade patterned with lichen green flowers. The angel raises his right hand – the one closer to us – in front of his breast, with the forefinger pointing upwards. In his left hand he holds a metal staff.
On our right, Mary faces us. She has an oval face with pale white skin; her head is tilted slightly to our left, towards the angel, but her eyes are directed upwards and towards our right. She has long, dark red hair and wears a jeweled circlet around her head. She appears to be kneeling behind a low table with an open book on it: but her whole form is enveloped by voluminous royal blue garments, including an underdress fastened under the bust by a red belt, and a flowing cape in the same blue. The fabric of the cape drapes over the left side of the table, under the book, and bunches in heavy folds on the floor. The cuffs and V neck of the dress are trimmed with white fur flecked with black. Mary’s hands are raised in front of her at breast height, the palms turned slightly outwards.
A white dove flies down over Mary, with a ray of golden light extending from it and pointing towards her head.
Below the pair, a patterned floor extends to the bottom edge of the painting. The square floor tiles are a creamy beige color decorated with Biblical scenes in black. At the bottom right foreground is a wooden stool with a red cushion. Behind it is an upright stem of white lilies.
Behind Mary and the angel, across the top half of the painting, a series of polished marble pillars are connected by pointed archways; between them, windows let in natural light. Above these archways, and deep in shadow, is another series of columns set into the stone; and at the top are more windows with rounded arches; one stained glass window shows a saint in a red robe with a halo.
