This panel, with Mannerist characteristics that are so evident that it was long attributed to Parmigianino, has a wealth of symbolic references and classical elements. The scene is set in front of a vaguely classical temple, indicating that the Virgin has believed in the angelic annunciation and has thus become the temple of the Word and the new Ark of the Covenant. Also the figure of the archangel Gabriel has a classical look, almost as though he were Mercury, the messenger of the gods. An open book on Mary’s kneeler – a book of hours, it seems, for it contains rubrics to indicate the correct order of the prayers – bears two biblical quotations (Is 7:14 and Mc 1:34;38) referring to the mystery of the Incarnation.
We inform our the kind visitors of the Pinacoteca and scholars attending the Library's reading room that the Ambrosiana will be closed to the public from December 4 to 7 included.
The lectures will be grouped into three "knots":"Memory and Christianity, from Augustine to the Modern Age", "Memory in performative and missionary practices" and "Practices of Memory and Mission: from Europe to the Overseas Worlds".
The new Ambrosiana Digital Library was created with the aim of enhancing the main funds (inf., Sup., S.P. and Trotti) through digitization and public and free dissemination via the Internet.
The series of lectures Dante and Europe in the nineteenth century investigates the fortune of the Poet among leading figures of nineteenth-century European culture.
