Early morning Uffizi visit~

Fra Angelico

An early morning (8:15) return to the Uffizi. With my pass I was the first one into The Rooms, the 13th and 14th century rooms, that is. Today’s mission: study Mary’s pose in annunciation scenes. Michael Baxandall, in Painting & Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy, describes “five successive spiritual and mental conditions or states attributable to Mary,” with disquiet and submission being the most common.

1. Disquiet
2. Reflection
3. Inquiry
4. Submission (humility)
5. Merit

     In disquiet, Mary has just heard the news. More specifically, she may show that she is reflecting on it; or maybe she is inquiring, as in Luke’s gospel, “How can this be…?” Regardless, her hands are outstretched in these first three states..

     in submission, however, Mary’s hands across her breast, indicating that she has accepted God’s call to bear the Son of God and that the spirit has entered her. In the fifth state, she is alone on her own merit, without Angel Gabriel. The annunciation is over.

     Although the Renaissance painter followed certain standards that were subjected to the interpretation of the viewer, everyone knew the general rules.

      As I wandered the Uffizi this morning, did I observe Mary’s disquiet in Botticelli?

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Was Leonardo depicting an inquiring Mary?

Is disquieted the best way to interpret Simone Martini’s Mary?

I’ll have to go back to the Convent of San Marco and Fra Angelico’s Annunciation to find the most submissive Mary I know.