Episodes From The Life Of The Virgin Genovese School XVIth Century

Large painting on canvas with 3 compartments relating to the first part of the life of the Blessed Virgin. 16th century Genoese school. In the left compartment, the two saints are the Virgin standing and Anne seated, in front of a background representing a colonnade and a tormented sky. Mary is head covered, with a holy halo; Anne is also covered, haloed and wears a richly decorated mantle with a gold border and Marie is encouraged by her mother to decipher the text inscribed on the open book placed on her which is probably written "Audi Filia et vide et inclina aurem tuam quia concupivit rex speciem tuam ”(“ Hear my daughter, see and listen, for the king has desired your beauty ”). These are the words of Psalm 44, verses 11 and 12, which have become liturgical antiphon, considered as the announcement of the election of Mary, "among all women", as mother of the Savior (Christ, in this case) and wife of the King (God the Father). In the central compartment, the scene of the Annunciation is displayed with particular pictorial richness. The angel Gabriel presents the Lily to the Virgin in the form of the royal fleur-de-Lys of France, while the Virgin is seated behind a prie-Dieu and in front of a four-poster bed. The Holy Spirit enters through a bedroom window. The Annunciation is indeed one of the central mysteries of Christian worship. It is in fact the moment when the divine becomes incarnate in man: the angel Gabriel announces to Mary her new status as mother of the Son of God, and explains to her that she will bear a child in her womb while remaining a virgin. This is the origin of the belief in a virginal conception which should not be confused with the dogma of the immaculate conception which is peculiar to Catholicism (it is explicitly rejected by most Protestants and Orthodox, while being often left to their discretion by their respective churches and communities). In the compartment on the right, the scene of the Visitation is located in an urban environment idealized by a complex architecture with a still approximate perspective, specific to the Renaissance (obelisk, pyramid, facade of an Italian palace, etc.). Saint Elisabeth, pregnant with Saint John the Baptist, touches the belly of the Virgin. The Visitation of the Virgin Mary is indeed a Christian holiday celebrated by Catholics and Orthodox. The feast of the Visitation commemorates an episode of the Gospel according to Luke: the visit made by Mary, pregnant with Christ, to her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist. “In those days Mary departed and hastened to the high country, to a town in Judea. She entered Zacharie's house and greeted Elizabeth. Now, as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child quivered in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she uttered a loud cry and said: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed the fruit of her womb! And how is it given to me that the mother of my Lord come to me? For, do you see, from the moment your greeting struck my ears, the child leaped for joy in my womb. 39-45)! " The spelling of the cartouche "SANCTA ELIZABET" gives us a precious clue on the dating of the painting because it is thus that in the Genoese tradition the name of Saint Elisabeth was written from the 14th to the 16th in the Republic of Genoa.