Fra Angelico, The Annunciation (Prado) Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts

DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: We're
in the Prado in Madrid,
and we're looking at Fra
Angelico's Annunciation.
Now, the Annunciation
by Fra Angelico
that most people
are familiar with
is a fresco that's in
San Marco, in Florence.
This is a painting that was
made for a church not far
from Florence--
DR. BETH HARRIS: In Fiesole.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: It is
extraordinary in that the frame
is original, and so, not only
do you have the main panel,
but you've got the predella
underneath with all
of its original
framing elements.
I'm not sure that
I've ever seen that.
DR. BETH HARRIS: These
things were often
taken apart and sold in pieces.
We have an Old Testament
scene of Adam and Eve
being cast out of the Garden
of Eden, or the expulsion,
by an angel, and
actually that scene
is joined to the
Annunciation scene,
because in the upper left,
we see the hands of God
releasing this divine
light and a dove,
which you can see just to
the left of the column--
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
The Holy Spirit.
DR. BETH HARRIS: --which
is the Holy Spirit.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: So we have
actually the fall, and then
the reason for
Christ's existence.
DR. BETH HARRIS:
And Adam and Eve
as the precursors
to Mary and Christ.
So the man and woman, who
caused the Fall from Grace,
and Mary and Christ, who
make salvation possible.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: And then
we have God, the Father,
looking down in an
almost classical relief
sculpture in the center
just above that column.
The predella below is
the very condensed series
of scenes of the life of the
Virgin Mary, from her birth,
to her marriage to
Joseph, the Visitation--
DR. BETH HARRIS:
Through to her death.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
--through to her death.
That's right.
And they are really
meant, in a sense,
the literal support
for this later story.
So stylistically,
one of the things
that I find quite
important is the sense
of quiet and solemnity that Fra
Angelico was able to achieve.
You have the angel, who
is bowing below Mary.
His hands are crossed, which is
a symbol of respect, of prayer.
Mary reflects that
with her own hands.
I'm really taken by the
density of the Garden of Eden.
All of that fruit,
those flowers,
those wonderful sort of
anti-perspectival field
of flowers below the feet.
And then you have this
piece of stark architecture.
They are both too large for
the space that they occupy.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Absolutely.
I think if Mary
were to stand up,
she would hit her
head on the ceiling.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: I
think so, but none of that
is really important, because
this is a kind of reverential
and invented
exploration of beauty
as a way of
representing the divine.
DR. BETH HARRIS: So this
is painted contemporaneous
with Masaccio painting
the Brancacci Chapel.
So we have two radically
different approaches going on
in Florence at the same time.
And I think that's
a good reminder
that not everything
in the Renaissance
is this linear movement
toward naturalism,
but this variety of styles.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
Whereas Masaccio
was looking for a very, almost
mathematically, accurate
rendering.
Here we can see an
artist who's looking
to celebrate the decorative as
a way of expressing the moral--
DR. BETH HARRIS: The spiritual
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER:
--and the spiritual.
Absolutely.
DR. BETH HARRIS: And if you
look, there's no cast shadows.
There's not that kind
of intense modeling
that we see with Masaccio.
There's not a lot of
specificity to the faces
and individuality in the faces--
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: But there is
specificity to the decorative.
Look at the wings of
the angel, for example.
DR. BETH HARRIS: Or the
gilding of their halos.
DR. STEVEN ZUCKER: Or just
the foliage in the Garden.
It's quite sumptuous, isn't it?
DR. BETH HARRIS: It is.