Artifact World Gallery
Get the iOS app

Roundel with Annunciation to the Virgin by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/9fa83494707fb712251b2934a99a31e7

http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/9fa83494707fb712251b2934a99a31e7 · 1505-01-01

This is a roundel, a circular stained-glass painting made in Germany around 1505, showing the Archangel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary she will bear a child. It now lives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Look first at the wings. In an otherwise monochrome composition of gray-black grisaille, the painter stained only Gabriel's feathers a warm amber-gold. That single passage of color marks the divine breaking into a domestic interior, and it pulls your eye straight to the messenger.

Then look at the rim. Arcing across the top border is the inscription AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA, Hail Mary, full of grace. This was not made to hang on a wall. It was meant to be held close, a hand-sized devotional object for private prayer. The words would have caught the light before the image did.

The artist is unknown, but the technique is virtuosic: fine hatched lines in monochrome stain building drapery, perspective, and expression, all inside a perfect circle, the Renaissance symbol of eternity and divine completion.

Details

1505. A German glass painter builds a perfect circular world.
1505. A German glass painter builds a perfect circular world.
Gabriel delivers the news. Mary accepts, mid-reading.
Gabriel delivers the news. Mary accepts, mid-reading.
The painter stained only the wings amber-gold. Everything else is monochrome glass.
The painter stained only the wings amber-gold. Everything else is monochrome glass.
Now look up. Along the rim, tiny letters arc across the border.
Now look up. Along the rim, tiny letters arc across the border.
A devotional object made to be held in the hands and read as much as seen.
A devotional object made to be held in the hands and read as much as seen.
Transcript

It looks like a window into a quiet room. 1505. A German glass painter builds a perfect circular world. Gabriel delivers the news. Mary accepts, mid-reading. The painter stained only the wings amber-gold. Everything else is monochrome glass. Now look up. Along the rim, tiny letters arc across the border. It reads: AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA. Hail Mary, full of grace. This was a window for prayer. The words are the first thing the light would catch. A devotional object made to be held in the hands and read as much as seen.