You’ll see this divine image all over Italy: The Annunciation. The moment when Mary gets the Announcement from the Angel Gabriel: The Divine Is Within You!
Florence is full of them…The city celebrates its birthday on The Feast of The Annunciation, March 25…nine months before Christmas. Renaissaince painters wore down their paintbrushes capturing the action packed scene. The most famous is the one above, by Fra Angelico, that you’ll see in San Marco. 
Here’s a favorite of mine by the Mannerist Pontormo, in Santa Felicita, where Mary looks like a runway model.
Every painter wanted to capture this wonderful idea: the divine presence in a mortal woman. The moment when she accepts her destiny.
Oh, I’ve heard the laments from girlfriends: “I saw too much of that in Catholic school–blah-blah…” And I say, “Come on, you’ve got to get Jungian about it or you’re going to miss out.” This is a rite of passage, this is the beautiful glorification of the A-HA moments in our lives when nothing that follows will ever be the same.
Can all these Annunciations be one of the many reasons why we women love Florence so much? Does this scene of a woman being called to a destiny she could never have imagined resonate somewhere within us? Does it fan the spark of the divine within?
Ah, Susan, You’re so right! It’s not get thee to a nunnery this inspires, but get thee to Firenze. –
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