Van Eyck's Washington Annunciation: Narrative Time and Metaphoric Tradition

Author(s): Carol J. Purtle

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Mar., 1999), pp. 117-125
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3051290 .
Accessed: 25/01/2011 19:05
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=caa. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art
Bulletin.

http://www.jstor.org

Van

Eyck's

Narrative

WashingtonAnnunciation:
Time
and
Metaphoric Tradition

CarolJ.Purtle
It is the goal of this article to consider the iconographic
implications of Jan van Eyck's compositional decisions in his
Annunciation at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
in light of the painting's recent examination (see E. Melanie
Gifford, "Van Eyck's Washington Annunciation: Technical
Evidence for Iconographic Development," which precedes
this article). Rather than attempting a full review of all aspects
of iconography associated with this work, the discussion here
focuses on decisions apparently open to the artist at specific
stages of the painting's production. Evidence suggests that
van Eyck (or his advisers) sought to add important historical
and theological dimensions to the viewer's perception of the
Annunciation event as the painting's iconography evolved.
Of fundamental concern in this technical endeavor, of
course, is the affirmation of authenticity. This painting appears entirely consistent with the known practice of Jan van
Eyck insofar as that is possible to determine by technical
comparison.' This affirmation also offers the art historian
firm ground from which to examine several newly revealed
iconographic and compositional decisions as meaningful
directions taken during the course of the painting's development. Since Elisabeth Dhanens believed that van Eyck never
copied or repeated himself,2 this new evidence could also lead
to an altered or expanded notion of the artist's metaphoric
vocabulary as well as to a fuller assessment of his final
intention for the finished panel.
Our new understanding of the compositional stages evident in the painting's execution should lead us through van
Eyck's initial plan to depict the Annunciation in an undecorated church interior, to his subsequent adjustment of the
floor and back wall designs in favor of a specific set of
allusions to the signs of the zodiac and the Hebrew Scriptures,
and then to a consideration of his majolica vase with lilies, a
decision that could well have involved an attempt to bring the
panel conceptually closer to its adjacent space: either the
actual altar of the donor's chapel or the imagined space of
additional panels completing a configuration to the right.
It appears that van Eyck, drawing on an extensive knowledge of medieval metaphor and an accomplished awareness
of contemporary practice, planned to portray this Annunciation within a fully developed ecclesiastical interior. He was the
first artist we know of to develop a panel in which the
Annunciation is enacted entirely surrounded by the fully
articulated architecture of a church.3 Although his Annunciation configuration seems to have followed the iconographic
practice established by the Parisian workshop of the Boucicaut Master some years earlier (Fig. 1)," van Eyck rejected the
practice common among miniaturists of rendering the church
interior as a small stage set. His initial intention with regard to
the structure of this church, however, bears further scrutiny at
this point in the painting's history. While the scientific

examination suggests no substantial iconographic revisions to

either the positions or costumes of Gabriel and Mary as they
follow their roles in the drama of the Missa Aurea,5 this
evidence notes that important changes were made to the
church's architectural details during the course of the painting's evolution. An examination of the style and structure of
this church at several different points in its development6 may
clarify the artist's purpose in making these changes.
Following the stages of composition evident from the
technical examination detailed by E. Melanie Gifford, we
must first concern ourselves with the initial concept of the
church interior, indicated by the underdrawing and such
painted details as appear to have followed the artist's original
articulation. Thus we must envision a building of uniform
style on side and back walls, the pilasters found above the
capitals on the left wall extending almost to the ceiling on
both side and back wall surfaces (see Gifford, Figs. 4, 6).
Window placement was not altered, so the entrance of light
from the exterior to the interior was devised in much the
same manner as we see it today.
The initial composition suggested a slightly smaller cushioned seat in the foreground, which would have received light
from the right, accounting for shadows cast on a geometrically drawn floor of alternating diamond and lobed patterns
(see Gifford, Fig. 10). Above, a ceiling of wooden boards was
joined with long beams, the boards eventually decorated with
small painted patterns of red and blue.
The finished composition, however, shows the wooden
planks of van Eyck's church ceiling in serious disrepair (see
Gifford, Figs. 1, 4). Some boards are completely missing,
while other planks are broken off, leaving dark gaps visible in
the covering of an otherwise solidly constructed building.7
Since we have no other instance of architectural or structural
imperfection visible in Eyckian buildings, we are drawn to
examine this church for its intentional metaphoric content,
bypassing the temptation to see van Eyck's architectural
setting as simply the natural rendering of an actual church
interior.8
The detail of the ruined ceiling suggests that van Eyck
intended to draw on a common allusion that compared
ruined structures to the era underJewish law that would soon
be replaced by a new structure and a new law with the coming
of the Messiah.9 We find this device most often accompanying
the birth ofJesus, as in the Dijon Nativity attributed to the
Campin group (Fig. 2). Here, in the soon-to-be-abandoned
structure of a field shelter, we see that the enterprising
carpenter had already used recycled materials for both
vertical and horizontal supports. Thus the old law and all
earlier structures, while still standing at the coming of the
Messiah, were destined to give way to a new law and a new

118

ART BULLETIN

MARCH 1999 VOLUME

LXXXI NUMBER

D.

:~Y~

$'

a~~o

1 Master of the Hours of mar&chalde

Boucicaut, Annunciation,ca. 1409. Paris,
Mus&eJacquemart-Andre ms 2, fol. 53v
(photo: Bulloz)

structure with the birth of the Savior and the foundation of

the Church.
Though we can be relatively certain that van Eyck devised
the ceiling gaps as part of his initial concept,10 the stages of
development evident in the iconography of the floor and
back wall indicate that he literally built additional meaning
into the architecture as the painting progressed. If we assume
the underdrawing to reflect the initial compositional stage,
we see that the structure was probably planned without
figurative detail apart from the image of the Godhead in the
central stained-glass window, a detail important to the iconography of the Annunciation. The damaged wooden ceiling
would certainly qualify as a major feature at this initial stage.
This indicates that the "old structure/Old Law" parallel
could well have been van Eyck's original metaphoric intention for the architecture, whereby the old structure, in need

of repair, was to form the context for the Annunciation and

then provide the basis for the evolution of a new structure
when the New Law was established with the coming of the
Messiah.
As the next compositional stage evolved, a number of
narrative details were added to the church interior, leaving us
with the architectural structure we see today. As it is extremely
difficult to know the sequence by which these new iconographic features were added to the church, it appears important to examine the entire metaphoric content of the original
building before moving on to a discussion of its later decoration.
At this point, then, we must consider in detail the question
of van Eyck's intentional use of Romanesque and Gothic
elements to further indicate a passage from the Old Law to
the New. When speaking of potential architectural metaphors

119

TIME AND METAPHOR

VAN EYCK'S ANNUNCIATION:

1-0
?,

'

?.

"

i, .

.,..

ii~r

!4

Nor

lw?
AIL\i
!ii

lol

2 Robert Campin, Nativity,ca. 1425. Dijon,

Musee des Beaux-Arts

connected with this structure, traditional scholarship has

called attention to a difference in style between the upper and
lower portions of the church. The upper area, including the
single arched window on the back wall, appears to be
constructed essentially of Romanesque elements, while the
lower portion, with its high arcade and slightly pointed
arches, suggests a slightly later early Gothic orientation. If we
grant this distinction as intentional on the part of van Eyck, as
we looked from the upper limit of the panel to the position of
Gabriel and the Virgin on the pavement below, we would see
the building moving from a state of disrepair to its most
recent historic style.11
While the ruined ceiling would have indicated faults in the
structure in the same area as the rounded arches traditionally
identified with Romanesque architecture, just as the foreground descent of the dove and the positioning of Gabriel
and Mary are silhouetted against an architecture viewed as
early Gothic, the combination of these styles in actual buildings of the Burgundian region makes it hard to defend a
strictly metaphoric use of distinct styles on van Eyck's part.12
The viewer's first impression of this building could well have

been calculated to recall a familiar rectangular transept

reminiscent of Burgundian church interiors. In order to
assess more thoroughly the context of van Eyck's decisions we
must investigate at least a few structural contexts in which
other artists of the period clearly suggest meaningful contrasts between Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles.
As early as 1399, we find Melchior Broederlam inventing an
enigmatic architectural structure for his well-known Champmol Annunciation. He depicted open platformlike modules
that attach to one another in a manner that defied rational
architectural analysis.13 While the Virgin is positioned in a
foreground open porch decorated with statues of Moses and
Isaiah, a domed Romanesque building opens behind her. Its
darkened, round-arched windows offer a marked contrast to
the Gothic tracery and golden light that characterize the
three windows crowning an adjacent structure at left. Broederlam appears to use the foreground Romanesque building to
indicate the period before the coming of the Savior, while the
enigmatic Gothic structure to the left would accommodate a
future use made necessary by developments following the
Annunciation.

120

ART BULLETIN

MARCH 1999 VOLUME

LXXXI NUMBER

'.

3 Workshop of Orosius Master, Citi de dieu:Pagans and

Christians,ca. 1400. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Philip S.
Collins Collection, ms 45-65-1, fol. 64

An even clearer contrast between Romanesque and Gothic

architectural styles is employed by the Orosius Master's
workshop in a manuscript of Saint Augustine's City of God
from about 1400 (Fig. 3). In an illustration that called for
visible distinctions between pagan and Christian forces in
order to distinguish the city of man from the city of God, the
round Romanesque building at the left becomes the "pagan"
temple, with an idol prominently displayed, while the church
of the Christians, Gothic in style, features high, wide windows
and a tower surmounted by a cross.14
In the initial Eyckian structure, however, we find neither
clear contrasts of structural styles nor irrational architectural
elements. There is no sign of a distinct contest set up between
good and evil, and nothing designed specifically to signify the
city of man as opposed to the city of God, though a potential
contrast between sacred and secular structures could possibly
have been intended by including a glimpse of town buildings
through the window at the left. As with a good many other
features of this building, caution dictates that today's viewer
give only a partial affirmation to the symbolic reading ofJan's
"Romanesque to Gothic" architectural transition in this
structure.
Greater certainty can be affirmed, however, with regard to
the important role the artist intended light to play in this
initial structure. This is clearly seen in two major devices. In
the foreground plan, divine light enters on golden rays from
the upper left window, balancing the light from the viewer's
space that creates shadows behind the stool at the lower right.
Thus, a directional contrast between the supernatural light of
the descending Spirit and the natural light of the viewer's
space is established. In the background, the light visible
beyond the windows of the back wall permits a slightly
different distinction to be made between actions of heavenly
and earthly significance. At the highest level, a stained-glass

configuration of red seraphim hovers above a blue mandorla

containing a full-length figure of the Godhead. This bearded
figure, holding a scepter and a tablet, with his feet on a globe
marked "ASIA," is seen immediately under the ruined
structure of the ceiling.15
The structure is in place for the viewer to see the single
window above in relation to the more developed triple
bottle-glass windows below, through which the earthly horizon can be detected. Such a structure invites the viewer to
consider the Lord of the Old Testament above in contrast to
the Trinitarian design of the three lower windows, as the
Second Person of that Trinity became physically present
within the lower space following Mary's fiat at the Annunciation. Farther to the left, in the aisle behind Gabriel, a window
with clear panes of glass permits a clear and direct view of
town buildings.
While the ruined ceiling remains the only certain reference
to the old structure/old law metaphor, we find it nonetheless
likely that Jan also had in mind a metaphoric view of this
building that saw the presence of the Lord at the upper level
of the structure evolving into a clear Trinitarian manifestation
behind the figures of Gabriel and Mary.16By this descending
manifestation of eternal light, van Eyck was able to fuse the
structural view of the church as a building and an institution
with the genealogical view of the church as a people. This
attitude becomes even clearer when we consider the narrative
details added to the floor and back wall as the composition
evolved. The role of light in the initial structure does not
change with the modifications added to the architectural
decoration. Indeed, light becomes the logical mode of transition whereby the viewer senses an explicit continuity between
the fundamental metaphoric language involved in the initial
and final versions of van Eyck's architectural structure.
The original significance of the change from the undecorated building to the elaborate decorative detailing of the
final structure may become clearer if we frame it within the
concepts of time familiar to the late Middle Ages. Augustine
taught that "it would be proper to say there are three periods
of time: the present of things past, the present of things
present, the present of things future ....1"7 The "present of
things past" was considered to be memory, while the "present
of things present" was immediate vision, and the "present of
things future" was related to expectation or prophecy.18
In the light of Augustine's explanations, we find that van
Eyck's initial compositional structure portrays only the present moment of action, that is, the present Annunciation
drama as immediate vision. The viewer would have seen the
enactment of the familiar Annunciation play and the active
presence of the Lord above as well as the Trinitarian presence
below, all within an architectural context that blended well
with contemporary experience. Those sensitized to the painting's subtlety (and close enough to see it) would recognize
the significance of the broken ceiling and the color nuance of
the Trinitarian windows. Further acquaintance with the Mass
might prompt the viewer to relate the imagery of the back
windows to the Incarnational message of the Creed, which
affirmed thatJesus was "eternally begotten of the Father, God
from God, Light from Light, true God from true God ...
[who] by the power of the Holy Spirit ... was born of the

VAN EYCK'S ANNUNCIATION:

Virgin Mary, and became man."19 These elements, however,

would simply enhance the dimensions of the present moment
of the Annunciation as "immediate vision."
By introducing narrative details from the Old Testament in
the niello designs of the floor and the painted detailing of the
back wall, however, van Eyck permits the past and the future
to enter the viewer's perception: the past as the memory of
those events from the Old Testament narrative that prepared
the chosen people to recognize the significance of this
moment, this immediate vision, and the future as the expectation that certain of these detailed events would foreshadow
events in the life of Christ to come. This manner of structuring the significance of historic events by reference to foreshadowing and prophecy, of course, was basic to the writing and
preaching of the period, and also fundamental to the pictorial parallels set up in the instructional pages of books like the
Biblia Pauperum and the Speculumhumanae salvationis.
Like all lessons involving the past, however, Augustine's
teaching on time relates to a distinct view of history; in his
view the progress of humanity as a whole could be traced in
distinct stages from Creation to the Last Judgment. The
purpose of his effort was to trace the building of the City of
God at each stage along the Jewish-Christian continuum.
After the manner of thought he observed among the Jews, he
formulated the idea of the Christian community as a unit
within the wider social structure, where forces of good and
evil were both at work. As he was quick to point out, however,
... the holy Scriptures ... were not enacted and recorded
without some forecast of things to come, and ... they must
be understood as referring solely to Christ and his Church,
which is the city of God. Its prophetic announcement has
never failed from the very beginning of the human race,
and we now see the prophecy fulfilled in every detail.20
While the peaceful and violent aspects of the social structure existed side by side, whether one spoke of the house of
Israel or the City of God, the dominant view of history as well
as of Scripture remained linear: signs and events of the past
were considered prophetic elements for the future. As we
read in the Cityof God:"Man lives in hope as long as the city of
God, which is begotten by faith in the resurrection, sojourns
in this world."21
Thus, when van Eyck painted the foreground floor details
and replaced the simple geometric patterns of the underdrawing with a more elaborate structure dominated by narrative
scenes from the lives of Samson and David, he brought the
memory of the past into the present "immediate vision."
These details, together with the newly applied painted details
on the back wall featuring scenes from the life of Moses and
roundels of Isaac blessingJacob, further appear to constitute
a more specific intention to develop the architecture as a
memory device, a structured reminder of the Lord's covenant
relationship with his chosen people.22
Following traditional scholarship, we could consider the
decorative floor patterning of plants and zodiac roundels as
reinforcing not only the passing of time but also the basic idea
that God maintains supreme dominion over the physical
universe as well as over all events pertaining to the chosen
people. The niello scenes of David slaying Goliath and

TIME AND METAPHOR

121

Samson bringing down the columns of the temple, assuming

central prominence in the viewer's foreground, signal important victories of the chosen people over opposing forces.23
If we read the biblical message clearly, in the context of
medieval attitudes toward history and exegesis, we find the
details at this point to parallel the history of Yahweh's
covenant relationship to his people, particularly as expressed
in passages like the following from the Book of Amos, where
the Lord has promised to purify, then preserve, his chosen
people.
The prophet Amos begins with a vision within the temple
precinct: "I saw the Lord standing at the side of the altar.
'Strike the capitals,' he said, 'and let the roof tumble down! I
mean to break their heads, every one, and all who remain I
will put to the sword'" (Amos 9:1).24 In these few lines we
recognize the possibility that the Lord pictured in the upper
window could be so configured as to connect not only with
the roof in disrepair but also with the prominent foreground
scenes, where Samson is actually striking the capitals and the
temple roof is falling down. In another foreground scene, we
see David putting Goliath to the sword. In one verse of
Scripture we thus find three major elements of Jan's most
prominent architectural designs. Further, when the necessary
purge has taken place, the Lord promises an age of prosperity
to his people: "That day I will re-erect the tottering hut of
David, make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it
as it was in the days of old. .. ." (Amos 9:11).
We find, then, that van Eyck's architectural details parallel
elements of the narrative history of the Lord's covenant
promises to his people. He has, through Samson, struck
capitals and seen the roof of enemies tumble. Through David,
he has put to the sword the enemies who remained. Then, in
the person of Mary, he will rebuild the house of David, "make
good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in
the days of old."25 The faithfulness of Yahweh to his promises
and his people thus becomes another theme that unites these
final architectural details to the event of the Annunciation.
Directing events from his luminous position on the upper
back wall, Yahweh faces the ruins of the house of Israel and
acts through history to preserve and protect his people. His
faithfulness is chronicled through the victories of good over
evil, while his current action sends the promised Messiah to
"a Virgin espoused to a man named Joseph of the house of
David" (Luke 1:27), thus fulfilling his promise to rebuild the
tabernacle of David.
The covenant relationship that Yahweh established with
Abraham, then, is concretized in his descendants of the house
of Israel. We are therefore not surprised to find in Luke's
account of the Annunciation a reference to the fact that the
coming Messiah "shall reign in the house of Jacob forever"
(Luke 1:33). The establishment and preservation of the
house of Jacob, therefore, also constitutes an important
narrative setting for the coming of the Messiah to a daughter
of Israel. Taken individually, each of the events added to the
decoration of the back wall were meant to exercise a prophetic role as prototypes for the eventual appearance of the
Messiah. In very simple terms, it appears that the upper
portion of the back wall features scenes in which the faithful
were to recognize the Messiah as foretold and prepared by the

122

ART BULLETIN

MARCH 1999 VOLUME LXXXI NUMBER 1

miraculous presentation of the infant Moses to the young

daughter of the Pharaoh and, on the other side of the
Godhead, by the presentation of the law to Moses, completing
his prototypical role as leader and lawgiver. Later in time, and
farther down in space, we see painted roundels of Isaac
blessing Jacob on either side of the middle arch. We recall
that this blessing imparting leadership was also the result of
the mediation of a woman, Rebecca, the wife of Isaac and
mother ofJacob. Medieval exegetes tended to see this event as
a prototype of the action of the Trinity in the body of the
Virgin or, more specifically, as the simultaneous blessing of
the Father and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit permitting the Word of God, the "ruler of the house of Jacob," to
take flesh in the body of the Virgin.26
As we have seen, the iconography of the floor indicates that
the Lord has prepared his chosen people to receive the
Messiah through the victories of their kings and leaders. Jan's
additions to the back wall indicate that those same people
should be prepared to recognize the Messiah through his
likeness to the prophetic figures of Moses, Isaac, andJacob.
The Annunciation event, then, brings the Messiah prototype references from above to join the memory of God's
preparation of his people waiting below. The movement
implicit in each theme meets in the person of the Annunciate.
Touching, as she does, both iconographic worlds, Mary
becomes at once the house of Israel and the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Through her fiat, the Savior enters the house of
Israel and comes to dwell among his chosen people. Van
Eyck's decision, then, to add significant iconographic detail
to the floor and back wall of his structure clearly contributes
an important segment of history and prophecy to the recognition and "immediate vision" of the coming Messiah. By
situating this historical narrative sequence to move from the
background forward (and from the top down), the artist
further emphasizes the movement apparent in his depiction
of the Annunciation: that the incarnation of the Messiah in
the body of a daughter of Israel of the house of David was
fundamentally oriented to the future, to the right foreground, outside the limits of this panel, rather than to the
memory of the past historic events contained within it.
Van Eyck's final painting of the foreground vase of lilies
over the Virgin's gown and the niello floor brings us to the last
stage of our discussion. Van Eyck's addition of this feature
recalls the set configuration established by the Boucicaut
workshop and already established here by the position of the
Godhead, the Virgin, her robe, the open book, and the
foreground cushioned seat. As we observe in the Annunciation from the Boucicaut Hours (Fig. 1), a vase of lilies is
traditionally placed near the foreground altar area of the
composition. By setting the Annunciation within a modified
church interior, the Boucicaut Master successfully visualizes
the Incarnation ofJesus in the body of the Virgin as a parallel
event to the entry of Christ into the body of the Church.
Further, as Mary brings to flesh the body of Christ, this
Incarnation would parallel the action and position of the
priest at the actual altar of the foreground chapel, where the
body of Christ is once again brought to presence in the
Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass.27
If van Eyck intended to follow this detail of Boucicaut

iconography, however, we might wonder why he did not

include some forethought for the vase of lilies within the
fabric of the painting. The answer no doubt lies either in his
general compositional practice or embedded somewhere in
the rationale for this enigmatic right foreground corner of
the painting (see Gifford, Figs. 11, 12).28 We have seen from
the beginning that van Eyck accounted for a natural light
source that would cast nuanced shadows underneath and to
the left of the foreground cushioned stool. In his transition to
a narrative niello floor, he also devised a scene of the Death of
Absalom that remains partially visible between the leg of the
stool and the right edge of the painting. Taken historically,
this reference to the death of David's son moves the floor
narrative forward in time and to the viewer's right in space, as
it lies between the triumph of David in the center foreground
and the right foreground corner of the panel.
As a prototype reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, the
Death of Absalom was well established in medieval exegesis.29
(Here, Absalom's pierced body parallels the right foreground
leg of the wooden stool.) The cushioned seat thus stands on a
scene foreshadowing the death of the Savior. The final
decision to place the majolica vase of lilies on the same
narrative scene can hardly be considered accidental within
this iconographic scheme, as it strikes the transcendent,
positive note of resurrection.
While the flowering lilies further appear to cement the
composition by connecting the cushioned stool to the Virgin's robe, prie-dieu, and open book, we have no definitive
explanation for their iconographic meaning except as an
element of the forward sequence that will ultimately relate
the cushioned stool and the lilies to the action of the risen
Savior in the space to the right, forward of the frame.30
It is very likely that these transitional foreground elements
were meant to relate to additional panels in a more extensive
configuration. The painting's right edge appears designed to
fit illusionistically under a frame that would relate it spatially
to an adjacent composition. Van Eyck's clear identification
with the practice of the Boucicaut Master leads further to the
conclusion that the foreground vase of lilies and cushioned
seat relate to an actual foreground altar, a Mass, and the seat
of the celebrant priest, as they did in the pervasive practice of
the Boucicaut Master. This parallel sequence is particularly
prominent in Boucicaut pages like the Annunciation from
the Hours of Philip the Good (Fig. 4).31 We are reminded as
well that the most common association of the vine motif in the
final floor design would have recalled the wine of the
Eucharist. Augustine also saw this vine as a point of transition:
Christ himself planted the vineyard, of which the prophet
says: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of
Israel."... from the vineyard itself, that is, from the race of
the Israelites, came the flesh and blood that he assumed
for our sakes, in order to undergo his passion.32
Seen in view of an altar and the Mass, then, the panel of the
Annunciation provides not only the promised Word made
flesh of the Messiah but also the body and blood for the high
priest as sacrificial victim on the altar. The three-dimensional
space of the donor's foreground chapel would thus bring to
completion the historic narrative that began with Yahweh's

VAN EYCK'S ANNUNCIATION:

TIME AND METAPHOR

123

le''

i?

~g~~g--

:4Y"?e?r~:

~~;z
Qr~

41,e
L6~

4 Master of the Hours of marechal de

Boucicaut, Hours of Philip the Good,
Annunciation, ca. 1415. Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale, ms lat. 10538, fol. 31

covenant on the back wall and continued forward to the point

of Incarnation. Overall, as Augustine reminded the medieval
world consistently, all events from Scripture "must be understood as referring solely to Christ and his Church."33
If we return to the initial purpose of these comments, to
explore van Eyck's use of traditional artistic metaphor in view
of this panel's recent technical examination, we find, even in
the detailed architectural revisions made after the initial
definition of the underdrawing and early paint stage, that the
artist maintained a unified vision of the whole throughout the
process. The immediacy of the Annunciation event was not
altered by later elaboration; it was simply given further
contextual detail relating to the past and the future. In the
guise of natural appearance, then, van Eyck rendered a
symbolic setting. Of traditional architectural allusions to

opposition and conflict between Jews and Christians, he has

invented a background sequence of references that highlight
a unified approach to a common history. Of traditional
prototypes that form the background of the Jewish-Christian
heritage, he has created a dynamic progression that moves
forward in space as well as in time.
As a final synthesis of this study of divine light shed on the
history of a people, we find van Eyck able to structure all his
major lessons around the single point of harmony that exists
between the worlds of nature and grace. Positioned at a point
near the center of the back wall (a point foreseen from the
initial stages of the composition), Mary receives the divine
light of the Holy Spirit and the incarnate presence of the
Second Person of the Trinity through a single shaft of gilded
light. At this same point, the heavens and earth are seen to

124

ART BULLETIN MARCH 1999 VOLUME LXXXI NUMBER 1

meet in the natural world beyond. We come to reflect on the

importance of the Annunciation, then, not only in the actual
light of the donor's foreground chapel, or in the light of
historic action moving forward in time, but also through the
distilled experience of the natural world itself, a world where
physical experience and divine intervention come to share a
common vocabulary in the final state of this composition: a
carefully orchestrated and processed statement of the significant present, past, and future, all made accessible through the
immediate vision ofJan van Eyck.

Carol Purtle has writtenThe Marian Paintings of Jan van Eyck

(Princeton, 1982) and recentlyedited a volume on Rogier van der
Weyden'sSaint Luke Drawing the Virgin (Brepols, 1997). Her
article on the Louvre Sacerdoce de la Vierge appeared in the
Revue du Louvre (December1996) [Departmentof Art, University
of Memphis,Memphis, Tenn. 38152].

Frequently Cited Sources

Hand,John, and Martha Wolff, Early NetherlandishPainting: The Collectionsof the
National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue (Washington, D.C.: Cambridge

UniversityPress, 1986).
Panofsky, Erwin, Early Netherlandish Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

UniversityPress,1953).
Purtle, Carol J., The Marian Paintings of Jan van Eyck (Princeton: Princeton

UniversityPress,1982).
ArtBulletin
Ward,John, "Hidden Symbolismin Jan van Eyck'sAnnunciations,"
57 (1975): 196-224.

Notes
I am grateful to John Hand and the staff of the National Gallery of Art,
Washington,D.C., for the invitationto participatein the public programthat
led to my furtherstudyof this painting. I also wish to thankMollyFariesand an
anonymous ArtBulletinreader for helpful comments on an earlier version of
this article. I owe particularthanks to Melanie Giffordfor the time and effort
she devoted to patient collaborationon this project.
1. This affirmationdoes much to relax the scholarlyeyebrowsraisedin 1980
when Elisabeth Dhanens excluded this panel from the body of works
attributedto the hand of the master.She stated as a rationale only that "the
profusion of architecture, the patterned floor and the varietyof colors seen
here do not correspond to the rigorof VanEyck'smanner";Dhanens, VanEyck
(NewYork:Alpine Press, 1980), 355-57.
2. Ibid., 346.
3. In making this choice, van Eyck could well have drawn on the popular
parallelthat linked the image of the Virginwith that of the Church. Here, the
parallel would have been visuallycentered on the simultaneous entrance of
the Holy Spiritinto the body of the Church and the body of the Virgin. In his
popular devotional work Vita Christi,Ludolph of Saxony extended this
metaphor to include the entry of the Spirit into the life of the individual
Christianwhen he referred to a text of Pope Leo: "the same Spiritwho made
Christ to be born from the womb of Marymade the Christianbe born from
the womb of the Church"; Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Christi (La Grande Vie de

fisus Christ),trans. Dom Florent Broquin (Paris:C. Dillet, 1870), vol. 1, 39:
".. .suivant le pape saint L6on (serm. de Nativit.Christi),le mime Espritqui a
fait naitre le Christ du sein de Marie, fait naRtrele Chr6tien du sein de
l'Eglise."Translationis mine.
4. An extensive discussion of the iconographic practice of the Boucicaut
Masterand its relation to the theme of the Annunciation in a church is found
in severalof my own earlier publications.See Purtle, 11-15, 40-53; and idem,
"The Iconographyof Prayer,Jean de Berry,and the Origin of the Annunciation in a Church,"Simiolus20 (1990-91): 227-39.
5. The positions and costumes of Gabriel and Mary here appear to reflect
the practice of the MissaAurea, or Golden Mass,in local Flemish churches.
See references cited in n. 4 above. The complete text of a Flemish Golden
Massfrom the church of St.Jacob in Bruges is printed in Purtle, 193-201, app.
C. For another Golden Mass,see LauraJacobs,"Giotto'sAnnunciationin the
Arena Chapel, Padua,"App., in this issue of ArtBulletin.

6. For an exact account of the painting's provenance, inscriptions, and

iconographic details, see Hand and Wolff,75-86.
7. Jean Caswellobserved the painting in the laboratoryafter cleaning and
called the examiner'sattention to the significanceof this detail.
8. This church interior has often been related to extant churches in the city
of Tournai. The church of St. Quentin features rectangularend walls with a
single round-archedwindowcomplemented by a lower row of three, as we see
in van Eyck'spainting. At St. Quentin, the upper clerestoryis built above the
slightly pointed arches of the lower level. The church is also oriented east to
west, with the entrance on the east. Initial parallels with St. Quentin were
drawn by Thomas Lyman in "ArchitecturalPortraitureand Jan van Eyck's
WashingtonAnnunciation,"Gesta20 (1981): 263-71. The question of Tournai
architecturalprototype is also discussed in CraigHarbison,Jan van Eyck:The
Play ofRealism(London: ReaktionBooks, 1991), 172-75.
9. Though he does not go into the significance of a ruined structurewith
regard to this painting, Panofsky, 132 if., traces the metaphoric evolution
behind the use of ruins to denote the Old Dispensationunder Judaism and
discusses the use of Romanesque and Gothic architecturalstyles to indicate
affiliationwithJudaismand Christianityrespectively,134-44.
10. There is no specific underdrawingof broken boards in the ceiling, but
their planned articulationcan be assumed as part of normal painting practice
in this period (see Gifford). At the same time, we must recognize that some
details could have been intended all along but left without specific placement
in the underdrawing,since these details would not have been necessary in
order to achieve the desired surface articulation.Wherever space has been
allowed in the underdrawing and there is no overpainting of the original
detail (we find these conditions in the painting of the ceiling beams and the
articulationof details within the window frames), we are here assuming that
van Eyckprobablyforesawthese detailswhen he laid out the painting.
11. We must be careful to assessvan Eyck'sallusions here with appropriate
nuance. As Hand states, "while the arrangement may be and probably is
symbolic, it is not an architecturaland historical anachronism";Hand and
Wolff,79. See also Panofsky,137-39, as well as n. 8 above.
12. See discussionin n. 8 above.
13. One can also note the post-Eyckianblending of Romanesque and
Gothic stylesin the equally irrationalarchitectureof the FriedsamAnnunciationat the MetropolitanMuseumof Art in NewYork.
14. The use of pagan statuaryin this context can also be noted in a Flemish
Annunciationat the Prado from the circle of Robert Campin. There, the
enigmatic statuaryis found high on the Romanesque structure behind the
portion of the building that evolvesinto an early Gothic style. The Annunciation takesplace in the open portico at the right of this evolvingstructure.
15. For a summary discussion of the iconography of these windows, see
Ward,206.
16. This Trinitarianfunction is further detailed by the artist's nuanced
treatmentof differentcolor insets in each of the lowerwindows:red at the left,
green in the center, and amber on the right. This configuration appears to
amplify the teaching that the Godhead consisted of three separate but equal
persons.
17. Augustine, Confessions 11.14, in The Essential Augustine, ed. Vernon J.

Bourke (Indianapolis:Hackett, 1974), 233.

18. Ibid.
19. The Nicene Creed would have followed the Annunciation play in the
Golden Mass,since the playserved as the Gospelreading.The translationhere
is that of the InternationalCommittee on English in the Liturgy,1973.
20. Augustine, Cityof God16.2, trans.M. Dods (Edinburgh:T. and T. Clark,
1913).
21. Ibid., 15.18.
22. It should also be noted that van Eyckreplaced the simple capitalson the
structural piers in the underdrawing with storiated capital decoration to either
side of the three back windows. The more prominent scene that falls between
Gabriel and Mary features several equestrian figures among a more plentiful
array of soldiers carrying standards and shields. John Hand related the
allusion to "the malevolence in the world"; Hand and Wolff, 80. It recalls the
unidentified scene above the head of Saint Michael on the left wing of
the triptych of the Enthroned Madonna, Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Dresden.
The foliate capitals in the Washington Annunciation are also typical of those
in other Eyckian works.
For a specific account of the compositional stages evident in both floor and
back wall, see Gifford. The niello floor detailing appears to be painted directly
over the geometric underdrawing, while the figures on the back wall were
painted over an intermediate paint layer in which simple red lines detailed the
arches of the back wall. Since these two sections of the painting do not overlap
at any point, it is not technically possible to say that the detailing of the floor
took place before the final painted detailing of the back wall, though the
number of paint layers evident on the back wall would seem to suggest this
sequential development.
23. For detailed discussions of the floor pattern, see Panofsky, 139 n. 1.
Further programmatic details concerning both the floor and back wall are
discussed by Ward, 196-208.
24. Scriptural translations are taken from TheJerusalem Bible, ed. Alexander
Jones (NewYork: Doubleday, 1971).
25. By using specific passages from the prophecy of Amos in this discussion,
I do not wish to imply that it was van Eyck's intention to illustrate these specific

VAN EYCK'S ANNUNCIATION:

passages. The metaphoric purpose of the floor appears directed at showing

the Lord's faithfulness in preserving the people of Israel by a variety of
remarkableevents. A number of the most popular references to this fact were
drawnfrom the livesof Samsonand David.Biblicallanguage from a number of
different passagescould apply to the events pictured in this panel.
26. Drawing on the teachings of Isidore of Seville, Rabanus Maurus, and
Rupert of Deutz, Ward, 206, explains the prototypical function of Isaac's
blessing in the following manner:"The position of the figureson either side of
the arch ... and their poses, like those of Annunciate figures, relateJacob's
blessing to the blessing of the Virgin by Gabriel.Jacob's promised sovereignty
(Genesis 27: 29) is paired with the promise of Christ'ssovereignty over the
house of Jacob (Luke I: 32-33)." He explains further, "The church Fathers
saw Isaacas a figure of God the Father,Jacob as the Church or Christ... and
Rebecca as the Holy Spirit" (206 n. 67).
27. For a more extensive discussion of the relationship of the Virgin's
prie-dieu to the forwardchapel altar,see Purtle, 11-13.
28. See Gifford for an explanation of the technical findings that van Eyck
painted the vase and lilies over preexisting surfaceswithout leaving the usual
reserve to accommodate their configuration.
29. Graham Smith details contemporary references to the Death of Absalom as a prototype of the crucifixion of Jesus in his discussion of another
painting whose iconography bears striking resemblance to that of van Eyck's
floor sequence here. See Smith, "The Betrothalof the Virgin by the Masterof
Flmalle," Pantheon30 (1972): 126-31. He points out that the Death of
Absalomis illustratedin the basdepageof the Christon the Crossminiaturein
the Tris belles heures de Notre Dame. References to the Death of Absalom as a

prototype of the Crucifixion are also frequent in the Speculumhumanae

salvationis.A clear visual parallel is drawn in a late 14th-century German

TIME AND METAPHOR

125

manuscript from Darmstadt (Landesbibliothek, 2505, fol. 46v) in Horst

(Dortmund:Harenberg, 1981), 52. An important textual
Appuhn, Heilsspiegel
reference to the same parallel should be noted in the Prologusof the 1448
version by Jean Mielot. See Speculumhumanaesalvationis,ed. Jules Lutz and
Paul Perdrizet (Leipzig:KarlHiersemann, 1907), 3, chap. 2, lines 77-82. In a
different discussion of this floor scene, Ward, 205, considers Absalom "the
antitypeof Christon the Cross."
30. Questions about the artist'ssymbolicintent are often raisedwith regard
to these lilies and their blue and white majolica vase. One must recall the
presence of such a stem of lilies on the center table of the M6rodeAltarpiece,
where the majolicavessel features Hebrew script and appears to refer to the
body of the Virgin, there containing the lily stem of the Trinityas the second
flower prepares to burst into bloom. Followingthis use, van Eyck'svase could
refer to Mary,and the lilies to the flowering of the divine presence made
manifestwithin her at this Incarnation. If, however,we assume the lilies to be
used here as a type of "badge" or label the artist placed specificallyon the
Virgin's blue robe, they could be seen as a characterizationof the Virgin
herself-as the flowering stem grown from the root of Jesse. In this view, the
lily stem would constitute a vertical parallel to the position of the Virgin.
Ludolph of Saxony (as in n. 3), 40, provides a contemporarycontext for the
latter view by invoking Mary as the "flowering stem of Jesse ... who has
produced this flower and this unique and incomparablefruit" (translationis
mine). Either of these interpretationswould support the contextual detail of
van Eyck'sfinal composition.
31. For a fuller discussionof these relationships,see references cited in n. 4
above.
32. Augustine, Cityof God16.2 (as in n. 20).
33. Ibid., 16.2.