The Annunciation theme : a case study in the unchanging art of illustration
Date
1979
Authors
Wiebe, Roy Allen
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the nature of illustration through a study of how the Roman Catholic Church illustrated the Annunciation theme and its underlying dogmatic significance over a period of fifteen hundred years. The nature of illustration and the Church's teaching on the use of art are first described and are seen to be closely related. Generally a patron has a message he wants conveyed: the artist gives it suitable visual form by using a style and iconography its intended audience finds attractive and understandable. The artist, whether the illustration is religious or not, works for his patron (usually) and his public. His art is expected to fulfill a specific need. The nature of the subject matter also influences the artist's approach to illustration. In the case of official Catholic art the primary duty of the illustrator is to depict clearly the doctrinal significance of gospel events in a way that his audience will find relevant and comprehensible. As Church art has the secondary persuasive function of strengthening belief and overcoming disbelief, it is important that an attractive style, related to the contemporary situation, be used.
The main dogmatic significance of the gospel events portrayed in the five Annunciations and one Nativity studied in this thesis is the doctrine of the Incarnation which remains virtually unchanged over the period of this study. The patronage and content thus remain constant, the main variables are style, iconography and the social-religious context.
The first four examples in this study indicate how the Church's actual practise conformed to her teachings on art and how both style and iconography were manipulated to relate an unchanging theme to very different religious and social situations. The artist consistently worked for his patron and public and chose an acceptable style and iconography (usually standardized) that presented his subject matter in a way that would be easily understood and found attractive as well as relevant.
The last two examples are less successful illustrations. Rossetti was more concerned with realism than the traditional approach to illustration. He used a style that primarily reflected his views on art, a style that happened to be unpopular, and he insisted on .depicting the gospel event as it might have occurred. The public found his work neither attractive nor edifying. Although his Annunciation also has some doctrinal ambiguity, its main flaw is its unpopular style which does not fulfill the secondary persuasive function of Catholic illustration. Beardy's Nativity fails for the opposite reason. It presents doctrine ambiguously and thus violates the primary criterion of good Catholic illustration. Rossetti's realistic approach was a new attitude to art in his day, an attitude that has since come to influence much modern art including Beardy's work, to its detriment as a religious illustration. This approach has also placed a tremendous strain on the traditional artist- patron relationship and has frequently alienated artists from the public.
Although this thesis focusses on one particular teaching illustrated by one particular patron, its conclusions also indicate how successful illustration in general should be done, with special reference to the role of the artist in modern society. The nature of illustration has remained unchanged from our earliest to our latest example; the formula for success still applies and might help restore the traditional artist-public relationship without any sacrifice of artistic quality. If successful illustrations like the S. Maria Maggiore mosaics or the Reims sculptures can al so be impressive works of art in their own right, perhaps the same could be true of modern illustrations.