I'm teaching an art history class and next week I'm doing all paintings of The
Annunciation. I've been working on this class for months, and have found
Annunciation paintings interesting for many years. I've read everything I can
find about them, but am amazed that an obvious object of the iconography is
never addressed: Why the angel almost always is placed on the left, and Mary on
the right. When every other object in a painting means something, it is odd that
such a major part of the composition is not addressed.
I started looking into "the left side" as a symbol, and found an internet paper
that states that in the Jewish Temple, an invisible angel was believed to stand
on the left of the altar, and God on the right. I'm curious about that and think
there might be something there. I don't want to use information from a sole
source, especially if it is a paper off the 'net. Can anybody tell me if that
is correct?
Any other insight into this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much, Betty in OK
