Annunciation

Artwork: Annunciation

———————————-

Artist: Giusto de’ Menabuoi

Created: 1376-78

Medium: Fresco (detail)

Location: Baptistery, Padua, Italy

——————————-

“Giusto de’ Menabuoi (c. 1320-91), was originally from Florence, but worked mainly in Padua, northern Italy.

He possibly trained under Bernardo Daddi or Maso di Banco, and he was an imitator of Giotto. Working at the time of the Black Death in the 1370s, and under a decentralzed Catholic papacy, Giusto de’ Menabuoi, usually known as Giusto, was an innovator who expanded the pictorial and expressive possibilities of Christian art. Annunciation depicts the angel Gabriel informing Mary of her immaculate conception of Jesus. This is just one scene from an enormous series of frescoes in the Baptistery in Padua. Viewed in situ, this image is the first in the story of Jesus’s conception and birth. Scenes in the lower register depict stories from the life of Christ. In this scene, the Annunciation is quite conventionally drawn – the angel Gabriel and the Virgin are separated by a pilar to symbolize the division of the mundane and the divine. Mary receives the blessing of the Holy Spirit, represented by the dove. The lilies held by the angel Gabriel represent purity. The geometrically stylized background and clever use of perspective is part of trompe l’œil effect, which deceives the eye into thinking that the scene is recessed when it is not. Giusto was instrumental in establishing Padua as a major artistic center, and is credited with furthering and expanding the legacy of Giotto, while widening the stylistic gulf between the artists of northern Italy and the Florentine School. The frescoes of Padua are an astonishing, monumental artistic achievement.”(MC)

—————————-

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #1transcribedtext #christianity #padua #fresco #webgalleryofvisualart #webgalleryoffineart