Annunciation, Luke 1:38 Wall Art

Mary in a plain room

Mary sits on a low wooden stool draped with a fringed cloth striped in rust. A slate-blue mantle falls from her head to the floor over a white veil, a coral dress and a long cream skirt. Her eyes are lowered and both palms rest open on her knees, a gesture of receiving rather than asking. Sandaled feet rest on a floor of pale stone tiles.

The room is almost bare: one small deep window cut into the plaster, a patch of blue sky in it, and a two-handled clay water jar standing in the corner. No angel is painted. The artist lets the empty space and the light from the window stand for the visit that has just ended. Above her, lettered in brown: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, and Luke 1:38.

What does “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” mean?

The King James Version gives the verse as: “And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” These are Mary's last words in the scene. The angel Gabriel has told a young woman of Nazareth, engaged to Joseph, that she will conceive a son by the Holy Ghost. She asks one honest question, how this can be, hears the answer, and consents.

“Handmaid” translates a Greek word for a female servant. It sounds humble, and it is, but in the Old Testament the same title belongs to Hannah and other women who spoke boldly to God. Mary is not passive here: her reply is a free choice, and Luke ends the scene only once she has made it.

In Latin the second half begins with the word fiat, “let it be done”, and Mary's fiat is repeated three times a day in the Angelus. The Church marks the Annunciation on March 25, exactly nine months before Christmas. Orthodox and many Anglican and Lutheran calendars keep the same date.

Who it is for

Women often choose this print for themselves, for a bedroom or a quiet place to pray, since it shows faith as a daily yes rather than a grand gesture. It is also given to a new mother, to a goddaughter at her baptism or to a woman taking the name Mary at confirmation. The palette of blue, coral and cream sits softly in a Catholic home.