ANNUNCIATION
"One would have sworn that he was saying, 'Ave';
for in that scene there was the effigy
of one who turned the key that had unlocked
the highest love; and in her stance there were
impressed these words, 'Ecce ancilla Dei,'
precisely like a figure stamped in wax.
'Your mind must not attend to just one part,'
the gentle master said - he had me onthe side of him where people have their heart.
At this, I turned my face and saw beyond
the form of Mary - on the side where stood
the one who guided me - another story
engraved upon the rock; therefore I moved
past Virgil and drew close to it, so that
the scene before my eyes was more distinct."
from Canto X in Dante's Purgatorio, translation by Allen Mandelbaum 1982
Painting, Annunciation [1898] by Henry Ossawa Tanner -[1859-1898]
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