The angel, announcing the birth of Christ, gives a lily to the Virgin. Etching by N. Le Mire after Dubois after F. Solimena.

Bible. N.T. Luke 1.26-35. The attitudes and postures of the Virgin and the angel have varied significantly and even interchanged in Christian iconography. The plethora of differing images of the Annunciation provides a real insight into the history of emotion and its representation in gesture. The variations of the Virgin's posture provide much of the interest. Her hand is usually active; sometimes she is intently studying, sometimes she is in a gesture of almost carnal surprise. She may be glorified, or on the other hand she may kneel. Then the angel varies in relation to her: he might kneel before her. After the Council of Trent, the angel was set in the air, "reacting against the excessive 'familiarity' of religious art of the 15th century" (Réau)