'Columbia University Libraries/Information Services'
Doi
Abstract
Looking at the Madonna by Antonello of Messina in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, we are faced with (at least) three questions. Is the Virgin of the Annunciation, the Immaculate Mother of God who is about to receive the news that she is going to carry the Son of God in her womb? Or is it a portrait, perhaps of a person we know or could know? But does it matter? No. What matters is that we respond to her as if she were a human being, not a divine or transcendent being, as if she were someone we could meet, even in our wildest dreams. What matters is that almost instantly it arouses our interest, that with the right hand it seems to force us to stop, that we are drawn to the face, beautiful and mysterious, and that we recognize in it someone whose feelings we thought we might understand, someone whose emotional state we could access. Immediately, as soon as we set our sights on it, we feel involved; immediately we notice the shadow that crosses the forehead and the left eye, as well as, in the right half of the face, the slight pout of the mouth, sensual but at the same time enigmatic.' What does all this mean? You have been reading; is raising his hand right now, as if requesting a pause, reflecting, no doubt, on something he has just seen
