The Annunciation as the locus of return of the figured logos
Alexandre Emerick NEVES
Original title: A Anunciação como o locus de retorno do logos figurado
Published in
Keywords: Annunciation, Medieval aesthetics, Modes of figuring the body, Movement, Place, Stoicism, Time.
The approximation of philosophical thought with theological precepts has brought about the conciliation of the presuppositions of Greco-Roman culture with Christian mysticism, of the concepts erected by rationalism with what is supposed divinely revealed, which seems to intuit the dimension of this event so represented in medieval aesthetics and Renaissance, namely, the annunciation of the logos taken as the divine virtue in the way of being fully revealed and manifested in the pictorial locus. More than a religious motif, it is the proclamation of a thought based on Aristotelian metaphysics, modeled on Stoicism and refined by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, manifested in medieval aesthetics, especially in the retable of Simone Martini. The mystery of the incarnation intuits the convergence of the suprasensible with the world of appearances. Anticipated by the figuration of the Word announced, it presupposes the ontological status of origin and the speculative treatment of time, movement and place, from a comparative exercise between the descriptive aspects of the biblical narrative and its return figured in artistic beauty.
The Annunciation in Fra Filippo Lippi: interpreting some symbolic variants
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: The Annunciation in Fra Filippo Lippi: interpreting some symbolic variants
Published in
Keywords: Annunciation, Christianity, Fra Filippo Lippi, Mariology, Medieval iconography, Patristics.
The Virgin of the Annunciation: A Paradigm of Humility in Medieval Doctrine and Imagery
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La Virgen de la Anunciación, un paradigma de humildad en la doctrina y la imagen de la Edad Media
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Annunciation, Humility, Iconography, Medieval Art, Patrology.
In recounting the event of the Annunciation, the Gospel of Luke describes the sublime lesson of humility given by the Virgin Mary by proclaiming herself the Lord’s slave while she received the announcement of her election as Mother of God. Such a moral stance soon became an outstanding example of modesty and obedience for all Christians, as it was showed by many Church Fathers, theologians and religious thinkers throughout the centuries. Our paper aims to highlight that this significant lesson of humility and submission by the Virgin, reported by the Gospel and frequently interpreted in patristics and theological sources, often reflected also in art works, as we try to put evident through the analysis of twelve medieval paintings.
