XIV

THE ANNUNCIATION-THE VIRGIN MARY

VASARI, in his notice of one of Giotto’s Annunciations, praises him for having justly rendered the fear of the Virgin at the address of the Angel.¹ If he ever treated the subject in such a manner, he departed from all the traditions of his time; for I am aware of no painting of this scene, during the course of the thirteenth and following centuries, which does not represent the Virgin as perfectly tranquil, receiving the message of the Angel in solemn thought and gentle humility, but without a shadow of fear. It was reserved for the painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to change angelic majesty into reckless impetuosity, and maiden meditation² into panic dread.

The face of the Virgin is slightly disappointing. Giotto never reached a very high standard of beauty in feature; depending much on distant effect in all his works, and therefore more on general arrangement of colour and sincerity of gesture, than on refinement of drawing in the countenance.

¹ [“The first pictures of Giotto were painted for the chapel of the High Altar, in the Abbey of Florence, where he executed many works considered extremely fine. Among these, an Annunciation is particularly admired; the expression of fear and astonishment in the countenance of the Virgin, when receiving the salutation of Gabriel, is vividly depicted; she appears to suffer the extremity of terror, and seems almost ready to take flight” (vol. i. p. 95, Bohn). The pictures here described by Vasari are lost.]

² [Midsummer Night’s Dream, ii. 2. For “the wild thought of Tintoret” in treating the Annunciation, see Vol. IV. p. 264.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]