The Annunciations

The Annunciation piece was painted by many artists throughout history, each piece was created in its most unique and beautiful form. They all represent a meeting of an Angel and a women. One of these pieces was created by Simone Martini and the other by Robert Campin and each piece was done during different eras. Simone Martini is from the late byzantine and Robert Campin is from the Northern early renaissance. Both pieces are portraying Madonna seated while the Angel Gabriel comes into the room for the “Annunciation”. However, each artist had a different way of showing it.
The Annunciation by Martini was done in 1333, Tempera on wood panel, the size was 260 x 305 cm. In this piece we can clearly see how he places Madonna as a “queen”. Martini uses of elongated figures adds to a very elegant painting, he also uses texture, for example, the headpiece on the angel’s head made out of flowers. In this piece Madonna is sited in a Golden throne, her room is all in gold symbolizing luxury and is very detailing emphasizing the figure of Mary. The use of gold also makes this piece seems more “holy” and the background is clearly a representation of the Gothic era. Martini also focus on the expression and body language of each figure, in this case there is a feeling of tension between Mary and the angel. Campin’s version dates back to 1425-1430, and was oil on panel sizing 64 x 63 cm. This Annunciation is also known as The Merode Altarpiece, and is a much simpler version comparing to the Annunciation by Martini. Campin’s Annunciation takes place in a much simpler room. Madonna sits on the floor and leans back on a bench while reading a book, angel Gabriel is also more simple with white vest. The focus in Campin’s Annunciation is simplicity and he shows it also with the background which looks more like a smaller room. Another difference between Martini and Campin’s piece is that on Martini as already mentioned before, Madonna is sitting on a throne as if she was already the “holy Mary” and not the humble and modest Virgin Mary whom was chosen because of her simplicity. On the other hand Campin tries to portray Mary as a more simpler person, the one who was chosen for being humble. He places Mary as a house woman, the house seems to have just being cleaned and Mary is seated on the floor reading a book, this is a more detailed and realistic approach just as we can see from many other art