Light Symbolism in Gentile da Fabriano’s Vatican Annunciation

Lasse Hodne

doi:10.5209/eiko.73395

Abstract

Gentile da Fabriano’s Annunciation in the Vatican Pinacoteca is one of the clearest and most interesting visualizations of a famous metaphor from Medieval hymn literature that compares Mary’s hymen to the glass of a window. The painting uniquely combines three elements: rays of light, a Gothic tracery window, and the shape of the window impressed on the Virgin’s body. Gentile’s painting is the culmination of a development in Tuscan art that can be traced back at least until about 1370. This makes it part of an Italian tradition of visualizing the so-called ut vitrum metaphor that must antedate analogous examples from Flemish art.

Highlights

Resumen: La Anunciación de Gentile da Fabriano en la Pinacoteca Vaticana es una de las visualizaciones más claras e interesantes de una famosa metáfora extraída de la literatura hímnica medieval que compara el himen de María al cristal de una ventana
Gentile’s painting is the culmination of a development in Tuscan art that can be traced back at least until about 1370. This makes it part of an Italian tradition of visualizing the so-called ut vitrum metaphor that must antedate analogous examples from Flemish art
In the Vatican Picture Gallery there is a small panel by Gentile da Fabriano, one of the most renowned exponents of International Gothic style (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Resumen: La Anunciación de Gentile da Fabriano en la Pinacoteca Vaticana es una de las visualizaciones más claras e interesantes de una famosa metáfora extraída de la literatura hímnica medieval que compara el himen de María al cristal de una ventana. The theme of the rays of light sent out from God that penetrate a glass window as they enter the room of the Virgin recurs in a number of early 15th-century Flemish paintings.

Results

Conclusion