The Annunciation

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales larger image

1974 Two-light window, with Gabriel in the left-hand light and Mary, kneeling in the right. Building behind and dove descending. technique: stained glass size: 35 cm (width of each light) [approx] firm/studio: Celtic Studios Church of the Five Saints, Llanpumsaint, Carmarthenshire north wall of the nave Dedication: 'Er gogoniant i Dduw ac mewn serchus gof am Ann a David Jones, gynt o Brynmeillion. Rhodd eu plant 1974.' The juxtaposition of the figures is conventional; the archangel being placed to the left of the Virgin Mary. Note that Gabriel holds a rod or staff terminating in a fleur-de-lys, his symbol, which, because of the Annunciation, also became associated with Mary. Above his head appears MR, i.e. Maria Regina, a reference to Mary as Theotokos. Above the figure of Mary herself appears the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, and here referring to the moment of Incarnation. Before Mary is a pot of lilies, thus a reference back to the fleur-de-lys, and itself symbolic of her purity. Her kneeling posture, and especially the extended hands, evokes her words of acceptance of her role, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord'. The building behind may represent the Holy House at Nazareth, traditionally the locus of the Annunciation.  (ObjectID=706 ImageID=1321) Original File Name=_MG_2978.jpg

This artwork is indexed under the following main subject(s):
for other works containing these subjects please click on the links.

• the Annunciation: Mary, usually reading, is visited by the angel  [Luke 1:26-38]

Martin Crampin and John Morgan-Guy, Imaging the Bible in Wales (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010), Reproduction and Tradition: The Medieval World.

Maurice Broady, A Vision Fulfilled: The story of Celtic Studios and Swansea's architectural glass tradition (Swansea: West Glamorgan Archive Service, 2010), p. 112.

Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield, The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (London: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 326.

Photo © Martin Crampin, Imaging the Bible in Wales