This painting never stops giving, but the detail I love most: Mary’s response is literally backwards. (And, for all you literally haters, there is no more literal meaning of “literal” than literally referring to the materiality of letters floating in mid-air.) Way back I saw a few passing mentions that the reversal of the letters related to a theological debate, but I never went to the trouble of tracking that down.
Unvirtuous Abbey
December 9, 2020
Jan van Eyck (Netherlands, 1390-1441) - The Annunciation, detail [oil on canvas], circa 1434-1436, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
