The Annunciation
George Hitchcock, 1887, The Art Institute
of Chicago
On May 6, 1889, The “Exposition Universelle” opened in Paris
to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Parisians considered
George Eiffel’s iron lattice tower, constructed as a symbol for the exposition,
as an eyesore that must be quickly torn down after the fair. More in keeping
with popular taste was George Hitchcock’s oversized oil painting of the
Annunciation. One of the few American artists to be chosen for the Exposition,
Hitchcock worked in the naturalistic style typical of 19th century painting. In
Hitchcock’s Romantic imagination, nature itself “announces” the incarnation to
Mary, who is dressed as a young working-class woman. The slender halo
encircling her head is the only distinctly religious element in the picture.
The abundance of lilies filling the foreground carries the symbolic meaning of
the image.
The lily has a long and rich association with Mary. There is
an old tradition that the lily sprang from the repentant tears of Eve as she
went forth from paradise. Mary is the New Eve, the Mother of life, who bears
the fruit that redeems us from the fall and wipes away all tears. A legend from
the second century says that when Mary's tomb was opened to show Thomas that
her body had been assumed into heaven, it was filled with fragrant white lilies.
The Venerable Bede (673-735) compared Our Lady to the lily: the white petals
signifying her bodily purity, the golden anthers the glowing light of her soul.
Bouquets of lilies are often found in paintings of the Annunciation. St.
Bernard, who praised Mary as the “lily of chastity,” also saw in the lily as a
symbol of Christ’s Resurrection, the pure blossom arising from the lifeless
bulb and stretching towards the sun. In Hitchcock’s version of the
Annunciation, Mary “ponders all these things” as she contemplates the “lilies
of the field” before surrendering herself to God.
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