Hidden meanings in Annunciation paintings

• Christians believed the Annunciation took place in springtime - the Annunciation is celebrated on 25 March, nine months before the Nativity/Christmas Day.  So Mary is often shown with a spring flower in a vase, which later became a lily, the symbol of her virginity. 

• The archangel Gabriel is winged and traditionally in white. He may be descending towards the Virgin, but usually stands or kneels before her. In early examples the angel holds a sceptre tipped with a fleur-de-lys, the attribute of Gabriel, but later he often holds the lily. In Sienese painting he holds an olive branch, an indication of the enmity that existed between Siena and Florence, since the lily was the civic emblem of Florence. 

• The Virgin either stands, sits, or kneels. If standing she may be turning away from the angel, her hands raised defensively: 'Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary".'

• She is often shown with a book from which she is reading the celebrated prophecy of Isaiah (7:14), 'A young woman is with child, and she will bear a son . . .' 

• The dove usually descends on a slanting ray of light that touches the Virgin's head or breast. The image is meant to suggest the moment of conception.

• Italian Renaissance painting shows Mary in an open loggia or portico, and only rarely in her house. Northern artists put her in an ecclesiastical setting, because the Gothic style with tall pointed arches and slender moulded pillars symbolized Christianity and the Church. This contrasted with other buildings in the painting — rounded arches, plain pillars and domes — meant to correspond to the architectural style of the eastern Mediterranean, and therefore symbolic of Judaism. The Virgin is sometimes depicted within or standing at the door of a Gothic building, while nearby the Romanesque crumbles into ruins. 

• The area in which the Virgin receives the angel is well lit, illuminated by the light of the Christian faith, in contrast to the small dark windows of the 'eastern' (Romanesque) temple or synagogue in the background. 

• Rays of light passing through the glass window signify virginity. A walled garden and a tower, both symbols of the Virgin's chastity, may form a background. 

• With the art of the Counter-Reformation came a complete change of setting. The background was usually clouds and sky, out of which the dove descends in a dazzling light, suggesting that heaven is an immediate presence.

Annunciation, Fra Angelico

Annunciation, John William Waterhouse, 1914