For over thirty years my wife and I have visited the Diocesan Museum in Cortona, in Tuscany, to see Fra’ Angelico’s Annunciation. Contemplating it again this year, I was struck by how the painting radiates the beauty of holiness and draws one closely into the mystery which it celebrates.
At the top left of the painting the artist shows the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. An angel stands in the doorway of an aedicule; behind him his wings are illuminated by light, but outside all is darkness. Although he holds the sword of judgement to enforce God’s sentence against our first parents, the angel puts his left hand on Adam’s shoulder in a gesture which seems to offer consolation and a sign of future hope. Adam looks crestfallen, hanging his head forwards and holding it in both hands; Eve, her hair falling loosely over both shoulders, wrings her hands beneath her chin.
