Annunciation
Author: Unknown
Origin: Portugal
Dating: 18th century (?)
Material: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions (cm): 149 x 115
Inv. no.: MNAA2040 / PD0543dep
The Archangel Gabriel is depicted on the left side of the painting. The Virgin is seated, reading, leaning on a table with a crimson tablecloth – symbolizing blood and hope. On the table, there is a jar with several flowers, among which a white lily stands out – directed to the Virgin, symbolizing Her purity.
The Virgin is dressed in a pink tunic – symbolizing sadness, knowing that Her son would come into the world to suffer – and a blue cloak – evoking the celestial. The Archangel, who is shown blessing the Virgin, is dressed in soft colours such as green – hope – and is barefoot. He carries in his left hand a banner with a white ribbon where one may read Ave Maria Gratia Plena – Hail Mary, full of Grace.
“Flora in the Palace’s Collections”
«Lilies were the most esteemed flowers in the midst of the Bible and Hebrew poetry. The Song of Songs refers to it eight times as shoshanat haamaquim – Almost always translated […] as lily of the valley. It became the very symbol of Israel, and the flower was bounded to the Star of David as its six-petal motif adorned several architectural elements and murals of the ancient world – as a seal of the sovereignty of kings. In fact, its Portuguese name – açucena – derives from the Arabic name as‐asawsan, from the name in the lingua franca Aramaic shoshanta, which has its roots in shesh (six) – the number of petals […] and of the symbolic force of the hexagram; or the perfection of the two triangles that mirror the hermaphrodite qualities of the flower’s reproduction.
The Latin etymon lilium – which defines the genus of lilies – comes from the Greek leírion. The plant, which was already quite common in Egypt, probably spread to areas of the Mediterranean via the Phoenicians – although it only became semi-wild in the territories of the Roman Empire at the dawn of the first century AD […] [N]owaday it is considered a European species. In Greek mythology, the flowers represented the milk drops that slipped from the breast of the goddess Hera who, upon waking, found herself breastfeeding Heracles – the son Zeus had with the mortal Alcmena. Hera’s fury caused her magic milk to disperse and reach the firmament, transforming into the Milky Way.
Before the advent of Christianity – when lilies became the representative flowers of purity and chastity and a symbol of Mary’s virginity – in the Byzantine world, lilies were one of the heavenly landscapes flowers. Encompassing the theme of the transfiguration and glorification of the son of God – through life’s perpetual rebirth – lilies celebrate the magnificence of the natural world. On the third day of Earth’s creation, when plants and trees proliferated, lilies and roses are almost always the protagonists in the mosaic works of Byzantine religious spaces – as the ones that may be admired in the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily.
Alongside roses, lilies are at the top of the list of flowers for medicinal use in the first records of its cultivation in medieval gardens – such as in the Capitulare de Villis, a series of rules of the Carolingian period from the late 9th century.
In the late Middle Ages, the pure white satin-petaled flower became particularly associated with the Virgin Mary. In the recurrent depiction throughout the Western Christian world, the messenger of the Annunciation – Archangel Gabriel – holds a branch of lilies in this symbolic act of the Immaculate Conception and, if the white petals were an indication of chastity, the bright yellow stamens – like gold – symbolized Mary’s radiant soul.
Joseph also became associated with the representation of lilies.»
Sasha Assis Lima
