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The Annunciation, c. 1610, Kunsthistorisches Museum

NARRATOR: In a dark, nighttime setting that heightens this painting’s intensity, the Angel Gabriel arrives with momentous news for Mary.

KIRK NICKEL: Mary has just been facing away from the viewer reading the holy scripture when this tumult of heavenly light and angelic beings cascades into her bedroom. She turns to face Gabriel, her body expressing some surprise, but her face entirely placid, showing no anxiety about this moment of revelation where she is told that she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit.

NARRATOR: The painting is full of lessons Rubens learned in Italy, including the way the figures look rounded and fully three dimensional. And the intensity of Ruben’s colors, the sense of movement in the bodies, and the billowing draperies all add visual excitement to this key moment in Christ’s story.

By these means, the painting was intended to move and enthrall those who saw it. It was commissioned by the Jesuit seminary in Antwerp. They received generous funding from the Catholic rulers of the Spanish Netherlands to assist in strengthening the Catholic faith there, in the face of growing Protestantism in northern Europe.