Les Annonciations de Fra Angelico, Pollaiuolo, Piero della Francesca et Robert Campin : questions d’ornementalité et de couleur

The Annunciations by Fra Angelico, Pollaiuolo, Piero della Francesca and Robert Campin : Issues of Ornamentality and Colour. This study focuses on Tuscan Annunciations, with the addition of one from Umbria, created between the 1420s and the 1470s by, among others, Fra Angelico, the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca, Filippo and Filippino Lippi. It seeks to demonstrate that these painters used a high degree of ornamentality in order to embody the presence of the divine on earth. Indeed, ornamentality was intrinsically linked to the idea of beauty, itself an attribute of God and a heavenly trait. This essay examines in particular the abstract and multicolored mineral surfaces of the walls of Mary's house, which becomes the house of God at the Incarnation. This is followed by the temporary presence on earth of Gabriel, as the celestial being appears before Mary. The archangel's wings are the focus of careful analysis as they sometimes convey theological discourses expressed through chromatic.