The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries
10.54103/fenestella/16687
The current article addresses the topic of the symbolic identification of the Virgin Mary as a door according to a double possibility, namely, as an open door and as a shut door. This implies designating Mary simultaneously as ianua coeli and as porta clausa. These two possibilities suggest very different, though complementary, doctrinal meanings. Through the textual analysis of various quotes from the Church Fathers and theologians and medieval liturgical hymns referring to one or other of these two metaphorical expressions, the Author will determine the doctrinal meanings inherent in each one.
In the second instance, the iconographic analysis of seven images of the Annunciation from the 14th and 15th centuries that include some door in special conditions will allow us to validate the hypothesis that the intellectual authors of these seven paintings introduced that door into them as a visual metaphor capable of illustrating both textual metaphors of porta clausa and ianua coeli.
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José María Salvador-González
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Fenestella. Inside Medieval Art
ianua coeli
The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries
Text.Serial.Journal
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2021-12-28
2021-11-02
2021-12-28
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José María Salvador-González
2021/12/28
10.54103/fenestella/16687
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Complutense University of Madrid
2784-8663
ianua coeli
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Zuccari A., Morello G., de Simone G. (eds), Beato Angelico. L’alba del Rinascimento, Ginevra – Milano 2009.
The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries
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Editore / Publisher
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali

Direttore / Editor
Fabio Scirea (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Comitato editoriale / Editorial staff
Mauro della Valle (Università degli Studi di Milano)
Simona Moretti (Università IULM, Milano)
Fabio Scirea (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Assistente editoriale / Editorial Assistant
Andrea Torno Ginnasi (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Comitato scientifico / Editorial board
Marcello Angheben (Université de Poitiers, CESCM)
Xavier Barral i Altet (Université de Rennes 2, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia)
Giulia Bordi (Università degli Studi Roma Tre)
Manuel Castiñeiras (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Sible De Blaauw (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Albert Dietl (Universität Regensburg)
Manuela Gianandrea (Sapienza Università di Roma)
Søren Kaspersen (University of Copenhagen – emeritus)
Miodrag Marković (University of Belgrade)
John Mitchell (University of East Anglia)
Giulia Orofino (Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio meridionale)
Valentino Pace (già Università degli Studi di Udine)
Paolo Piva (già Università degli Studi di Milano)
José María Salvador-González (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Wolfgang Schenkluhn (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittemberg, ERZ)



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Università degli Studi di Milano
Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali
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      Sommario / Contents



 1    Langobardia maior e minor: indagini sul legame tra la scultura altomedievale
      e i capitelli campani
      Ulf Schulte-Umberg


39    Sospeso tra due mondi: il velo di San Giusto tra Bisanzio e Trieste
      Livia Bevilacqua


67    Architravi scolpiti del XII secolo a Piacenza
      Jessica Ferrari


93    The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th centuries
      José María Salvador-González


111   Trasmigrazioni: cultura materiale e sviluppo dell'identità. Alcune riflessioni sulla
      produzione di San Vincenzo al Volturno
      Marianna Cuomo




      In copertina: Piacenza, Musei Civici di Palazzo Farnese, dettaglio dell'architrave
      già del portale nord di San Matteo a Piacenza (foto di Jessica Ferrari)
The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images
of the Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries


José María Salvador-González


Complutense University of Madrid
Department of Art History
jmsalvad@ucm.es




Abstract


The current article addresses the topic of the symbolic identification of the Virgin Mary as a door
according to a double possibility, namely, as an open door and as a shut door. This implies designating
Mary simultaneously as ianua coeli and as porta clausa. These two possibilities suggest very different,
though complementary, doctrinal meanings. Through the textual analysis of various quotes from
the Church Fathers and theologians and medieval liturgical hymns referring to one or other of these
two metaphorical expressions, the Author will determine the doctrinal meanings inherent in each one.
In the second instance, the iconographic analysis of seven images of the Annunciation from the
14th and 15th centuries that include some door in special conditions will allow us to validate the
hypothesis that the intellectual authors of these seven paintings introduced that door into them as a
visual metaphor capable of illustrating both textual metaphors of porta clausa and ianua coeli.




Keywords: Virgin Mary; Divine motherhood; Perpetual virginity; Co-redemption; Patristics


How to cite: José María Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in Images of the
Annunciation of the 14th-15th Centuries, «Fenestella» II (2021): 93-110.


DOI: 10.54103/fenestella/16687
J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



1. Introduction


Among the many and imaginative metaphors or symbolic figures with which the Virgin
Mary has been identified, there are two that the Author will briefly address in this article:
that of Mary as a closed-door (porta clausa) 1 and that of Mary as an open door (referring
to the ianua coeli)2. Each of these two moods refers to some doctrinal meanings that are
quite different. However, despite their intrinsic mutual difference, both metaphors can
coexist and complement mutually in the same textual or pictorial narrative.
This paper, focused on the iconographic analysis of some images of the Annunciation
from the 14th and 15th centuries3 that include a semi-open door or a door in an
indistinguishable and ambiguous situation, seeks to shed light on the possibility of such
coexistence and, ultimately, bivalence of that Mariological symbol.
To proceed in order, the Author will follow two complementary steps. Firstly, by analyzing
a few brief quotes from some Church Fathers and medieval theologians who interpret the
very different doctrinal meanings inherent in the symbols of porta clausa and ianua coeli.
Secondly, in the light of these patristic and theological interpretations, by iconographically
analyzing seven paintings of the Annunciation from the 14th and 15th centuries that include
some door in a bivalent situation (semi-open/semi-closed) or an imprecise situation, in the
sense that the door is represented in a neutral way, which does not allow to determine
with certainty if it is open or closed. Thus, the analyzes of the patristic and theological
texts will allow to adequately justify the iconographic analyzes of these seven Annunciations.


2. Checking the Christian doctrinal tradition


2.1 Mary as porta clausa according to some Fathers of the Church and theologians
The Mariological symbol of the porta clausa derives from the shut gate facing East that the
prophet Ezekiel pointed out as an essential element of the temple that had to be rebuilt in
Jerusalem. Ezekiel refers to that Eastern gate or portico this way:
1 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut.
2 And the Lord said to me, «This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one
shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore, it shall remain shut.
3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He shall enter by way of the
vestibule of the gate and shall go out by the same way4.


1
  The Author of the current article has analyzed the symbolism of the porta clausa in images of the
Annunciation in Salvador-González 2021a and Salvador-González 2021b.
2
  The Mariological theme of the open door (ianua coeli) is now brought out briefly, seeking to
develop it more broadly and in-depth in a later study.
3
  On this generic iconography of the Annunciation along the Christian era: Réau 1957; Schiller 1971;
all along these two centuries above: Robb 1936.
4
  Ezek. 44,1-3 (Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam: 847): Et convertit me ad viam portae sanctuarii
exterioris, quae respiciebat ad orientem; et erat clausa. Et dixit Dominus ad me: Porta haec clausa erit;
non aperietur, et vir non transibit per eam, quoniam Dominus Deus Israel ingressus est per eam; eritque
clausa principi. Princeps ipse sedebit in ea, ut comedat panem coram Domino; per viam portae
vestibuli ingredietur, et per viam eius egredietur. English Standard Version:
https://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/ezekiel/44.html – Last access: 01.11.2021.

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Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



This prediction of Ezekiel was from relatively early dates interpreted by numerous Fathers
of the Eastern and Western Churches with a double Mariological and Christological projection.
In the first instance, in effect, they interpreted it as a clear foreshadowing of the virginal
conception and birth of the Son of God incarnated as a man in Mary's womb, as well as
her perpetual virginity. In the second instance, as a necessary correlate of the previous
Mariological interpretations, the Fathers interpreted this Ezekiel's shut door also with a
Christological projection, in the sense that God the Son became man without opening the
shut door (without destroying the virginity) of his mother Mary when he was conceived or
when he was born. Those multiple dogmatic meanings deciphered by medieval Fathers
and theologians about Ezekiel's porta clausa have been explained by the Author of this
article in a 2020 paper and two other articles currently in press5.
As we have already specified in two of the three articles cited in footnote 6, many Greek-
Eastern Church Fathers substantially coincide in these Mariological and Christological
interpretations of Ezekiel's porta clausa. Faced with the impossibility of re-exposing now
the proposals of each Greek-Eastern thinker, we will present here only a couple of quotes
from two authors as an illustration of this Eastern exegetical tradition.
Proclus (ante 390-446), patriarch of Constantinople, is one of those who repeatedly
comment on Ezekiel's passage with the double doctrinal approach already mentioned.
Thus, in the first sermon in Mary's honor, he is astonished by the fact that God dwelt without
any limitation in a human womb and that Mary's womb contained Whom the heavens
cannot encompass6. Then he points out that God was not ashamed to be born of a woman
because that is how life was generated, without staining her in any way, since only with
the mother remaining a virgin the man (Jesus) could be born pure in admirable childbirth7.
And, as Mary remained a virgin after giving birth, it shows that her son is God, delivered in an
unspeakable mystery: in fact, the one who entered his virgin mother's closed womb was born
as a man without producing any corruption in his mother, proving so that he had two natures,
the divine and the human, indissolubly united, just as the apostle Thomas recognized it when
the resurrected Jesus entered the disciples' cenacle without being prevented by its closed doors8.
Towards the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 8th Andrew of Crete (c. 660-c. 740),
bishop of Gortyn (Crete), states in his fourth sermon on the Nativity of the Virgin that, among
the innumerable ways in which the Sacred Scripture prefigures Mary is the «door», according
to Ezekiel's prophecy about the temple's shut Eastern door9. This Father then says that Mary,
the Mother of God, is the common refuge of all Christians and the gate of heaven, through
which only the Lord of heaven passed, not allowing anyone else to enter through it either

5
  Salvador-González 2020, 2021a, 2021b.
6
  Quis vidit, quis audivit, inhabitasse Deum in utero incircunscripte; ac eum quem coeli capere non
poterant, nullis arctatum angustiis, ventrem Virginis comprehendisse? (Proclus Constantinopolitanus,
Oratio I, PG 65: col. 682).
7
  Unde peccati ille principatum tenens Cain emerserat, inde Redemptor generis Christus sine semine prodiit.
Non erubuit Clemens Deus nasci ex muliere. Nam vita erat quod ita moliebatur: nullam contraxit labem
vulvae hospitio quam nullo ipse condiderat suo dedecore. Nisi enim mater virgo perseveravit, utique purus
homo est qui est natus, nec est partus mirabilis (Proclus Constantinopolitanus, Oratio I, PG 65: col. 682-683).
8
  At si etiam post partum virgo permansit, quomodo non etiam erit Deus, ac mysterium quale nemo
effari potest? Nulla is corruptione natus est, qui nullo prohibente clausis januis ingressus est; cujus
Thomas coniunctas naturas videns, exclamavit dixitque: Dominus meus et Deus meus (Proclus
Constantinopolitanus, Oratio I, PG 65: col. 682-683).
9
  Vide itaque multimodis eam honestatam nominibus, multisque Scriptura; […] Porta: Et dixit
Dominus ad me: Porta haec clausa erit; non aperietur, et vir non transibit per eam; quoniam
Dominus Deus Israel ingredietur et egredietur per eam: Et erit clausa porta (Andreas Cretensis,
Oratio IV, PG 97: col. 867-870).

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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



before or after10. And in his Sermon V on the Annunciation, Andrew of Crete confirms
that the Virgin is blessed because Ezekiel foreshadowed her as the East and as the shut
door through which only God passes and that will remain shut again11.
Like the Greek-Eastern Fathers, the Latin Church's Fathers and theologians also interpret
Ezekiel's porta clausa with the Mariological and Christological meanings explained
above12. Also, in this Latin area, the Author will restrict to a few quotes from a couple of
Christian doctrine teachers. Saint Ambrose of Milan, in his famous treatise De
institutione virginis, begins by asserting that Ezekiel's shut door, as well as the closed
garden and the sealed fountain of the Song of Songs, are synonymous with Mary's virginity13.
In this sense, he rhetorically challenges the Virgin, telling her that she is the closed door
prophesied by Ezekiel and that no one opens it, since the Holy and True (Jesus) closed it
once and for all, who opened it (in the sense of «went through it») and nobody closed it,
and he closed it, and nobody opens it14. In another paragraph of that treatise, after pointing
out that this closed door is precisely Mary in her condition as a virgin – with a similar
rhetorical question: «What is this door but Mary, and therefore closed precisely because
she is a virgin?»15 – the bishop of Milan maintains that this identification is justified because
«Mary is the door through which Christ entered this world when he was begotten in a
virginal birth, without breaking the genital closures of virginity»16. Saint Ambrose further
specifies that «When He whose immensity the world cannot contain came out of the
Virgin's womb, the barrier of her mother's modesty remained untouched, and her
virginity's seals remained inviolate»17.
Towards the middle of the 11th century, the Benedictine reformer and cardinal Saint Peter
Damian (1007-1072), bishop of Ostia, states that, just as the ray is born from the star
leaving it intact, so the son Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary, making her virginity intact,
just as Ezekiel announced when he prophesied that the door facing the East would
permanently be shut and no one will pass through it18. In another sermon on Virgin's
Birth, the Ostia's prelate assures that Mary is this temple's Eastern door, permanently
closed, previewed by Ezekiel, since Mary is always closed because she remains uncorrupted

10
   Haec Maria Dei Genitrix est, commune Christianorum omnium perfugium [...]. Coelorum porta,
per quam solus transivit coelorum Dominus, nemini ante postve pervium concedens ingressum.
Haec Maria Dei Genitrix est, commune Christianorum omnium perfugium (Andreas Cretensis,
Oratio IV, PG 97: col. 879).
11
   Vere benedicta tu, quam Ezechiel Orientem praenuntiavit, «et portam clausam, per quam Deus
solus transeat, et quae iterum clausa maneat» (Andreas Cretensis, Oratio V, PG 97: col. 899).
12
   The Author has studied in depth this issue in Salvador-González 2021b.
13
   Porta ergo clausa virginitas est: et hortus clausus virginitas: et fons signatus virginitas (Ambrosius
Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis, PL 16: col. 321).
14
   Porta clausa es, virgo, nemo aperiat januam tuam, quam semel clausit Sanctus et Verus, qui
habet clavim David, qui aperit, et nemo claudit: claudit ct nemo aperit (Apoc. 3,7) (Ambrosius
Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis, PL 16: col. 321).
15
   Quae est haec porta, nisi Maria; ideo clausa quia virgo? (Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione
Virginis, PL 16: col. 319-320).
16
   Porta igitur Maria, per quam Christus intravit in hunc mundum, quando virginali fusus est partu,
et genitalia virginitatis claustra non solvit (Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis, PL 16:
col. 319-320).
17
   Mansit intemeratum septum pudoris, et inviolata integritatis duravere signacula; cum exiret ex
Virgine, cujus altitudinem mundus sustinere non posset (Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione
Virginis, PL 16: col. 319-320).
18
   Et sicut radius processit a stella, stella integra permanente; sic filius ex Virgine, virginitate
inviolabili perdurante, secundum quod et propheta Ezechiel inquit: «Porta, quam vides, semper
erit clausa, et nullus transibit per eam (Ezek. 44)» (Petrus Damianus, Sermones, PL 144: col. 508).

96
Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



before and after childbirth when conceiving a man without having intercourse with any
male19. A few lines later, Peter Damian says that, as Mary remained a virgin when conceiving
when she gave birth, she could not experience pain because whoever was born from her
so ineffably did not corrupt her virginity's closure. In short, Christ, coming to a virgin,
entered her at being conceived and left her a virgin when he left her at birth20.
Complementing – and being inspired by – the Fathers' and theologians' statements on this
subject, many medieval liturgical hymns21 also proclaim the Virgin Mary as porta clausa.
Among the many cases that the Author has documented in this regard, which constitute the
documentary nucleus of new work in process, he now presents just a couple of examples.
Hymn 260, De sancta Maria, from the 13th century, states:
Blooming garden insuflated by the South Wind,
the door shut after and before,
unviable path for males22.
Hymn 326, De conceptione beatae Mariae virginis proclaims:
O Mary, the shut door
that nobody opened,
that prince, who passed [through it],
was God and man,
and neither when entering nor leaving
he violated the closure [hymen],
but he assumed the fibula of the flesh
that he before did not have23.


2.2. Mary as ianua coeli according to some Fathers and theologians
On the other hand, according to Greek-Eastern and Latin Fathers and theologians, the
expressions ianua coeli and porta paradisi imply the idea of the Virgin Mary's exclusive
privilege as mediator and co-redeemer of Humanity. In this sense, Mary cooperates with
Christ in his redemptive work to ensure that the faithful enter heaven and obtain eternal
salvation: it is as much as saying that the Virgin has, together with her son Jesus, the keys
of the heavenly kingdom, thus constituting herself, together with Christ, as the «gate of
Heaven». Many Eastern and Western Fathers and theologians defend this thesis. The
Author selects now only a few, with a brief quote that illustrates the idea under study.
In the Greek-Byzantine sphere, the monk and poet Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (c. 816-
886), in writing in honor of Mary, praises her as the door of those who achieve salvation

19
   Haec est denique porta illa, de qua Ezechiel testatur, dicens: «[…] Et dixit Dominus ad me: Porta
haec, quam vides, clausa erit, et non aperietur, et vir non transibit per eam, et semper erit clausa
(Ezek. 44)». Vere semper clausa, quia semper incorrupta. Incorrupta ante partum, incorrupta post
partum, concipiens virum, nesciens virum (Petrus Damianus, Sermo XLVI, PL 144: col. 753).
20
   Quae enim Virgo permansit concipiendo, dolorem sentire non potuit patiendo. Ille quippe, qui
ex ea ineffabiliter prodiit, claustrum virginalis pudicitiae non corrupit. Virginem denique veniens,
introivit, Virginem nihilominus exiens, dereliquit (Petrus Damianus, Sermo XLVI, PL 144, col. 760-761).
21
   The Author will keep as reference the excellent anthology Mone 1854.
22
   Florens hortus austro flante, / porta clausa post et ante, / via viris invia (Hymnus 260. De sancta
Maria. In Mone 1854: 53).
23
   O Maria, clausa porta, / quam nemo aperuit, / princeps ille, qui transivit, / deus et homo fuit, /
nec ingressus nec egressus /violavit clausulam, /sed quam prius non habebat, / sumpsit carnis
fibulam (Hymnus 326. De conceptione b. Mariae virg. In Mone 1854: 11).

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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



by faith, because she is the door through which only the one who incarnated for us passed.
That is why this writer asks Our Lady to open the doors of justice (that is, eternal life) to
all those who praise her24.
Similarly, in the Western Latin context, the Benedictine monk and Cardinal Saint Peter
Damian (1007-1072) affirms in a sermon for Mary's Nativity:
Today the queen of the world was born, the window of heaven, the door of paradise [...],
the celestial scale, by which the super-excelled God descended humiliated [as a man] to
the depths [to the earthly world], and by which man, who lay prostrate, ascended exalted
to the highest. Today the star appeared in the world, through which the Sun of Justice
illuminated the world25.
About thirty years later, the Benedictine Saint Anselm of Aosta, Archbishop of Canterbury
(1033-1109), proclaimed in a hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary:
Hail, heavenly gate,
through which healthy joy
from God, the Father proceeded
uniquely delivered to us26.
In perfect concordance with the Mariological interpretations that the Fathers and
theologians offer in this regard, many medieval liturgical hymns also extol Mary as the
door of heaven. By way of illustration, the Author presents here some examples.
Hymn 504, Psalterium Mariae, from the 12th century, greets the Virgin in these poetic terms:
Hail, Virgin, the gate of Heaven,
From which the true light was born,
By which the fallen are repaired,
and the upright in heart are glorified 27.
Hymn 590, Ad beatam virginem Mariam, from the 15th century, proclaims in reference to Mary:
The gate of heaven,
The light of the angels,
The joy of the righteous,
The hope of sinners28.




24
   O janua eorum, qui per fidem salutem consequuntur: o porta per quam solus ille pertransivit,
qui propter nos incarnatus est; aperi nobis portas justitiae, qui te fideliter collaudamus (Josephus
Hymnographus, Mariale. Theotocia Ex Paracletica Graecorum. PG 105: col. 1299).
25
   Hodie nata est regina mundi, fenestra coeli, janua paradisi, tabernaculum Dei, stella maris, scala
coelestis, per quam supernus Rex humiliatus ad ima descendit; et homo, qui prostratus jacebat, ad
superna exaltatus ascendit. Hodie apparuit stella mundo, per quam Sol justitiae illuxit mundo
(Petrus Damianus, Sermo XLVI. Homilia In Nativitate Beatissimae Virginis Mariae (VIII Sept.), PL 144:
col. 753-754).
26
   Ave coelestis janua. / Qua Dei Patris unica / processit nobis reddita / Salutaris laetitia (Anselmus
Cantuariensis, Hymni et Psalterium De Sancta Virgine Maria, PL 158: col. 1040).
27
   Ave, virgo, coeli porta / De qua vera lux est orta, / Per quam lapsi reparantur, / recti corde
gloriantur (Hymn 504, Psalterium Mariae. In Mone 1854: 238).
28
   Janua coelorum, / Lux angelorum, / Gaudium justorum, / Spes peccatorum (Hymn 590, Ad b. v.
Mariam. Mone 1854: 405).

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Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



3. The double metaphor of the door as Mary in images of the Annunciation


The Author will now analyze seven paintings of the Annunciation from the 14th and 15th
centuries that include a door in the scene in a more or less bivalent way, in the sense that
it can be interpreted indistinctly as a closed door or an open door. Three clarifications are
necessary in this case. First, the Author has considered only European paintings because the
images of the Annunciation in the Byzantine East do not have such a complex scenography as
those of the European West. Secondly, he has chosen some images from the 14th and 15th
centuries because, in the preceding centuries, European representations of the Annunciation
usually lacked any developed scenery, reduced only to a brief architectural element or furniture.
The third clarifying point – the most important undoubtedly – refers to the relationship
between the patristic, theological, and liturgical texts explained above (many of them
expressed several centuries before) and the artistic images of the 14th and 15th centuries
that will be analyzed below. In that order of ideas, four possible explanations – which are
not mutually exclusive but complement each other – allow us to understand and justify
such a relationship. In the first place, the teachings of the great masters of Christian doctrine,
such as Saint Ambrose, Saint Anselm, Saint Peter Damian, who are auctoritates of thought
within the Church, were widely known, used, and reformulated by ecclesiastics, and the
intellectuals of subsequent centuries, who often quoted and paraphrased them in their
writings and sermons. Furthermore, those same dogmatic teachings of the Fathers and
theologists are reflected in the poetic verses of medieval liturgical hymns, such as those
mentioned above, which were recited or sung in public religious services and private prayers.
Third, there is no reason to think that painters – except for some cultured friar painters,
such as Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, or Fra Bartolomeo – knew theology in-depth and,
even less, the subtle epistemological complexities of some theological issues, such as that
of God the Son's human conception/incarnation in Mary's virginal womb: to adequately
illustrate with suitable symbols (such as the «closed door» or the «open door») the doctrinal
depth of the Christian episodes to be represented, artists used to have – especially in
important commissions – the guidance of an intellectual mentor (generally a friar or
ecclesiastic) who, as the true intellectual author of the artistic work, instructed them on the
characters, attributes, objects, attitudes and situations with which the episode should be
performed. Fourth, it is well known that many artists did not need to have an intellectual
mentor by their side, since it was enough for them to «copy» reformulating it to their
liking, the conventional compositional-narrative model or scheme of the episode to be
represented: in the specific case of the Annunciation, the traditional model called for a
respectful angel before a demure Virgin, the flying dove of the Holy Spirit, a ray of light
descending from on high towards Mary, a lily stem, and other common elements in this
Marian representation.
On this multiple argumentative basis, it will now be legitimate to interpret these seven
paintings of the Annunciation in the light of the patristic, theological, and liturgical texts
explained.




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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



                                                                1 Duccio di Buoninsegna, the
                                                                Annunciation, panel of the front
                                                                predella of La Maestà, from
                                                                Siena Cathedral, c. 1308-1311.
                                                                National Gallery of Art, London.




                                                               Duccio di Buoninsegna29
                                                               (c. 1255-1318/1319), in the
                                                               Annunciation, former first
                                                               panel of the front predella of
                                                               the Maestà in Siena Cathedral,
                                                               structures the composition
                                                               inspired by Byzantine models.
                                                               Carrying a long flowery staff
                                                               in his left hand, the Archangel
                                                               Gabriel strode through the
                                                               door of the Virgin's residence
                                                               while blessing her with his
                                                               right hand. Surprised standing
with an open book – in which the prophecy of Isaiah Ecce virgo conc[ipi]et et pa[ri]et
filium et vocabitur30 is read—, Mary retreats on the porch of her house with modest
shyness, throwing her body back, tilting her head and covering her chest with the right
arm. At the upper edge of the painting, just suggested by a brief arc of a blue circle, the
Most High sends, together with the dove of the Holy Spirit, the fertile beam of rays, which
penetrates the ear of the Nazarene maiden to signify Jesus' virginal conceptio per
aurem31. In the center of the floor, forming an axis with the suggested God the Father and
serving as a nexus between both interlocutors, a bundle of lilies emerging from a vase
symbolizes the unspoiled divine motherhood of Mary.
Ultimately, Duccio includes in this small panel a significant element for the subject studied
here: the shady semi-open door, which, since it has one leaf open and the other closed,
could be interpreted bivalently as a closed door, and as an open heavenly door. Located
behind and almost above the figure of the Virgin, this door included in the painting
establishes a virtual compositional continuity with Mary, as if subtly wanting to suggest
their mutual symbolic identification: Mary as porta clausa, and Mary as ianua coeli.




29
   On the work of Duccio di Buoninsegna, see Baccheschi, Cattaneo 1972; Stubblebine 1979;
Deuchler 1984; Ragionieri 1992; Carli 1999; Bellosi 1999; Bagnoli et alii 2003.
30
   Is 7,14.
31
   The Author has studied the thesis of the conceptio per aurem in Salvador-González 2016.

100
Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



                                                                     2 Master of the Madonna
                                                                     Strauss, the Annunciation,
                                                                     c. 1390-1395, tempera on
                                                                     panel, 212x219 cm.
                                                                     Gallerie dell'Accademia,
                                                                     Firenze.




                                                                     The Master of the
                                                                     Madonna Strauss
                                                                     presents the scene in a
                                                                     relatively conventional
                                                                     way. Holding a giant
                                                                     stalk of lilies in his left
                                                                     hand, the kneeling
                                                                     angel raises his right
                                                                     hand as a sign of blessing
                                                                     the Virgin and pointing
                                                                     upward to the origin of
                                                                     the message he is
                                                                     communicating to her.
                                                                     Sitting timidly inside the
                                                                     house, Mary places the
                                                                     right hand on her chest,
                                                                     as if surprised that she is
                                                                     the one chosen to be the
                                                                     Mother of God while
                                                                     holding open on the lap
                                                                     a book in which the
prophecy of Isaiah: Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium is read. From the upper left angle,
God the Father emits the luminous fertilizing ray that, after passing through a symbolic
oculus in the lateral frieze and bearing the dove of the Holy Spirit in its wake, falls on the
body of Mary, whose bulging belly shows signs of her already effective impregnation by
work and grace of divinity.
Remarkable here is the door that, on the back wall, interconnects the Virgin with the
archangel, compositionally and conceptually. Also, in this painting, as in Duccio's just
analyzed, that slightly ajar door conveys the sense of bivalence, as a partially open and
partially closed door. In such a circumstance, this door of the Annunciation of the Master
of the Madonna Strauss constitutes a powerful double visual metaphor that illustrates the
two textual metaphors under study: that of Ezekiel's porta clausa, and that of ianua coeli,
whose respective Christological and Mariological scopes so many Fathers and theologians
put in evidence.




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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



                                                                    3 Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-
                                                                    1469), the Annunciation,
                                                                    c. 1437-1439, tempera on
                                                                    wood, 64x23 cm (each
                                                                    panel). Frick Collection,
                                                                    New York.




                                                                    The Carmelite friar and
                                                                    painter Fra Filippo Lippi32
                                                                    structures the Annunciation
                                                                    with a serene and simple
                                                                    composition. This quiet
                                                                    simplicity is perceived
                                                                    above all in the bare
                                                                    architectural scenography,
                                                                    in the sparse expressiveness
                                                                    of the characters, and
                                                                    even in the absence of
                                                                    the typical accessories
                                                                    usual in this Marian
                                                                    episode: kneeler, prayer
                                                                    book, presence of God
                                                                    the Father, the beam of rays
                                                                    of light are absent here.
                                                                    The artist captures the
                                                                    scene in a stripped
portico, in which the elegant archangel with colorful wings bows respectfully before the
Virgin, lifting her cloak with the left hand, while with his right hand, he holds a long stem
of lilies. With evident modesty, bowing her head and eyes, placing her right hand on her
breast, and opening her left arm as a sign of acceptance, Mary manifests her humble
submission as ancilla Domini. With these means, the painter illustrates the Virgin's
unconditional agreement before the will of the Most High to make her the virginal mother
of his divine Son, as evidenced by the flight of the Holy Spirit shaped like a dove, which
is almost touching her right ear.
Now, following the theme dealt with here, Fra Filippo Lippi, analogously to that represented
by Duccio in the panel just analyzed, also paints behind Mary a dark door – supposedly
accessing to her bedroom's privacy – in such a way that the physical continuity between
both, the door and Mary, suggests once again the symbolic identification of the door with
the Virgin. It should be noted that, by painting it in a dark and uniform color, Lippi leaves
in ambiguity the verification of whether that door is open or closed: as it is painted, one
can interpret it as open or as closed. Perhaps this has been a subtle trick arranged by the
cult Carmelite priest Fra Filippo Lippi to illustrate the double Mariological metaphor of
the Virgin as simultaneous porta clausa and ianua coeli.




32
     On Fra Filippo Lippi, see, among others: Marchini1979; Ruda 1993; Holmes 1999.

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Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



                                                                4 Fra Angelico,
                                                                the Annunciation,
                                                                c. 1438-1440, fresco
                                                                187×157 cm, Cell 3,
                                                                Museo di San Marco, Firenze.




                                                                The Dominican painter
                                                                Fra Angelico (1395-1455)33
                                                                sets the Annunciation with
                                                                a straightforward and
                                                                weighted composition,
                                                                and with a palette restricted
                                                                to the maximum, almost
                                                                monochrome, with a
                                                                preponderance of soft
                                                                creamy ocher. The painter
                                                                stages the Marian event in
                                                                a bare portico – similar to
                                                                an austere monastic cell –
                                                                open to the left towards
                                                                another similar room, in
                                                                front of which the
                                                                Dominican Saint Peter
                                                                Martyr appears looking at
                                                                the angel's announcement.
Complementing the rigorous nakedness of the scenography, Fra Angelico also simplifies
the figures, infusing them with a hieratic solemnity. A motionless Gabriel stands before
Mary, who, kneeling on a footrest holding an open book in the hand – a symbol of the
ancient prophecies that come true at that moment with her decision to accept the divine
plan, crosses the arms over her chest as a sign of humble submission as ancilla Domini.
Fra Angelico introduces in this fresco an element very significant for the analyzed topic.
Next to the back wall and at the end of the right wall, he painted a door whose
monochrome and narrowing (because of perspective) allow it to be interpreted as both an
open door and a shut door. Furthermore, by shaping the door just above the Virgin, the
artist establishes a perfect physical continuity and a symbolic identification of that door
with Mary. That is why the hypothesis that the Dominican scholar Fra Angelico wanted to
illustrate here the double metaphor of Mary as porta clausa and Mary as ianua coeli, with
all the doctrinal meanings contained by both metaphors, cannot be ruled out.




33
  On the work of Fra Angelico, see Pope-Hennessy 1952; Argan 1965; Baldini 1970; Guillaud
1986; Hood 1993; Bartz 2000; Zuccari et alii 2009; Scudieri 2010.

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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



                                             5 Dirk Bouts, the Annunciation,
                                             left panel of the Tríptych of the Virgin's Life, c. 1445.
                                             Prado Museum, Madrid.


                                             Dirk Bouts (c. 1415-1475)34 stages the Annunciation,
                                             left panel of the Triptych of the Life of the Virgin35,
                                             inside a small enclosure that looks like a chapel,
                                             with an unusual mix of styles36. Several standard
                                             conventions in this Marian theme were foreseeable
                                             in this work, such as the respectful attitude of the
                                             angel, the posture in the prayer of the demure Virgin,
                                             kneeling before an open book, and even – as in many
                                             other images of the subject framed by Flemish painters
                                             from the 15th century – some everyday objects,
                                             such as the water jug or the lamp, loaded with
                                             religious symbolisms referring to the virginity of Mary
                                             and the Redemption of Humanity.
                                               In addition, in line with the link that the unanimous
                                               doctrinal tradition established between the
                                               Annunciation and the Redemption of Original Sin,
                                               Dirk Bouts – imitating Rogier van der Weyden in
                                               his Triptych of Miraflores in the Gemäldegalerie in
Berlin – embodies in the arch of the portal framing this Annunciation, together with two
prophets who pre-announced the Messiah, six scenes from Genesis related to our first parents'
original guilt: they are, from left to right, the creation of Eve, the prohibition of eating the fruit
of the Tree of the Good and Evil, Original Sin, the expulsion from the Earthly Paradise, the
labors of Adam and Eve on earth, and Cain killing Abel.
Apart from these relatively predictable elements, two unusual details distinguish this
Annunciation by Dirk Bouts. Firstly, despite the gesture of the luxuriously attired archangel
pointing with his right index upward, there is no trace here of the traditional ways of
representing the intervention of divinity in this Marian episode. The artist, in fact, completely
omits the figure of God the Father, the dove of the Holy Spirit, and even the beam of
luminous rays descending from heaven on the Virgin. More important for the current
article is the door that, on the back wall, appears ajar (partially open and partially closed)
and located in perfect physical continuity/symbolic identification with the figure of the
Virgin. With such partial opening and partial closing of the door, the intellectual author
of this painting has perhaps wanted to suggest the two metaphors of Mary as porta clausa
and Mary as ianua coeli, with their enclosed doctrinal meanings37.

34
   On the work of this Flemish painter, see, for example, Dirk Bouts en Zijn Tijd 1975; Smeyers 1998.
35
   This triptych consists of four Marian episodes framed by a «gothic» portico decorated with sculptural
scenes from the Old Testament, painted in grisaille. The central panel is composed of two similar
scenes separated by a painted red column: the Visitation and the Nativity with the adoration of angels.
The left wing represents the Annunciation, and the right represents the Adoration of the Magi.
36
   The semicircular shapes of the vault and the arch of the portico in the foreground, clearly
Romanesque, do not agree with the door and the stained-glass window on the back wall, nor
with the sculptures with a base and canopy of said portico, clearly Gothic.
37
   In his large analyzis on this Dirk Bouts’ Annunciation, Sarabia1998: 67-87, states on this door
(p. 79): «La puerta entreabierta del fondo nos sugiere el paso al hortus conclusus de María, el
complemento de la recoleta habitación en que trabaja y ora».

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Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



                                                                 6 Benozzo Gozzoli, the
                                                                 Annunciation, panel of the
                                                                 predella of La Madonna della
                                                                 Cintola, c. 1450-1452.
                                                                 Pinacoteca Vaticana.




                                                                 Benozzo Gozzoli
                                                                 (1420-1295) represents the
                                                                 Annunciation in the scenic
                                                                 setting of a classical
                                                                 portico open to a garden
                                                                 enclosed by a high wall,
                                                                 about the metaphor of the
                                                                 hortus conclusus from the
                                                                 Song of Songs. The artist
                                                                 here arranges the Marian
                                                                 event in a relatively
                                                                 conventional way, with
                                                                 the angel Gabriel, who,
                                                                 bearing a lily stalk in his
                                                                 left hand, kneels reverently
                                                                 before the Virgin, while
the luminous ray of divinity descends on Mary's body. However, Benozzo Gozzoli
introduces in this painting a surprising novelty: on both sides of Mary, the painter places
two doors, one bright (that is, open) and the other dark (that is, closed). Thus, by
«framing» Mary between both doors – almost in continuity/identification with them, the
intellectual author of this painting seems to suggest the double metaphor that identifies
Mary at the same time with the enclosed porta clausa and with the open ianua coeli, with
all the doctrinal meanings that both metaphors contain respectively.




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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



                                                                      7 Piero della Francesca,
                                                                      the Annunciation, c. 1469-
                                                                      1470, mixed media on wood,
                                                                      122x194 cm. Top of the
                                                                      Polittico di Sant’Antonio,
                                                                      Galleria Nazionale
                                                                      dell'Umbria, Perugia.




                                                                   Piero della Francesca
                                                                   (c. 1416 /1417-1492)38
                                                                   painted the Annunciation
                                                                   as the apex of the
                                                                   Polittico di Sant’Antonio,
                                                                   made for the Franciscan
                                                                   tertiary sisters of the
                                                                   Sant'Antonio alle
                                                                   Monache convent in
                                                                   Perugia. In this
Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel appears on the left kneeling before the Virgin Mary,
who, carrying the usual prayer/prophecy book in her right hand, is framed by a miniaturized
portico with a square base39 lowered on four pedestals with four columns each.
For our purposes in this article, it is important to highlight two elements in this Annunciation.
First of all, the two open «doors» that frame Mary: a clear and transparent one in the
foreground, like the arch of the portico in which Mary stands; the second, of a dark hue
(as if to indicate that it is open), located behind the Virgin, as a proper entrance door to
an interior room. In this sense, through the compositional relationship between these two
open «doors» that frame the Virgin, the intellectual author of this painting seems to suggest
a symbolic continuity/identification between them and the Virgin, to illustrate the
metaphor of Mary as ianua coeli.
In addition, perhaps the most striking component in this Annunciation is the long and
narrow porticoed gallery, which stands as the true physical center and compositional axis
of the painting. It should be emphasized here that this long and narrow corridor
(suggestive metaphor of the vagina) concludes and is hermetically closed with a compact
marble plate, which symptomatically assumes the shape of a shut door (poetic simile of
the hymen). Thus, Piero della Francesca would probably also be hinting at the other
metaphor of Mary as porta clausa, with the well-known dogmatic meanings of the
virginal divine motherhood of Mary and her perpetual virginity.




38
   On the work of Piero della Francesca, see Clark 1951; Venturi 1990 (1954); Busignani 1967;
Clark 1969; Hendy 1968; de Vecchi 1970; Longhi 1989 (1927); Centauro 1990; Angelini 1991;
Battisti 1992; Lightbown 1992; Lavin 2002; Bertelli, Paolucci 2007.
39
   The monumental scale that the artist has deliberately given to both characters affects the
miniaturization of the architecture, which is thus seen ex professo as a mere scenography.

106
Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



3. Conclusion


A first remark is evident, namely, the substantial agreement between the sentences of
many medieval Fathers, theologians, and hymnographers when metaphorically identifying
the Virgin Mary with Ezekiel's enclosed porta clausa and with the open ianua coeli.
The first of these symbolic identifications, Mary as porta clausa, refers to the dogmatic
meanings of Mary's virginal divine motherhood – with the immaculate begetting and the
supernatural birth of the Son of God from the Virgin's womb, and Mary's perpetual virginity.
The second symbolic identification, Mary as ianua coeli, refers to Mary's universal
mediation and co-redemption in favor of Humankind.
From the comparative analysis of these patristic, theological, and liturgical texts,
a conclusion can be inferred by analyzing iconographically some images of the
Annunciation that include a door in a bivalent situation: the intellectual authors of the
seven paintings analyzed here have included in them, as a visual metaphor, a door
alternatively appreciable as open or closed, with the probable purpose of illustrating the
double textual metaphor of Mary as porta clausa, and Mary as ianua coeli, with the
respective Mariological meanings revealed by the Church Fathers and medieval theologians.




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J.M. Salvador-González, The Symbol of Door as Mary in the Images of the Annunciation...



List of Illustrations

1 Duccio di Buoninsegna, the Annunciation, panel from the frontal predella of the La
Maestà of the Siena Cathedral, c. 1308-1311. The National Gallery of Art, London.
Wikimedia Commons:
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maest%C3%A0_del_Duomo_di_Siena#/media/File:Duccio_d
i_Buoninsegna_068.jpg – Last access: 1.11.2021.
2 Master of the Madonna Strauss, the Annunciation, c. 1390-1395, tempera on panel,
212x219 cm. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Firenze. Web Gallery of Art:
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/master/straus/annuncia.html – Last access: 01.11.2021.
3 Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469), the Annunciation, c. 1437-1439, tempera on wood,
64x23 cm (each panel). Frick Collection, New York. Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Filippo_Lippi_-_Annunciation_-
_WGA13184.jpg?uselang=it – Last access: 01.11.2021.
4 Fra Angelico, the Annunciation, c. 1438-1440, fresco 187×157 cm, Cell 3, Museo di
San Marco, Firenze. Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Angelico_049.jpg?uselang=it – Last access:
01.11.2021.
5 Dirk Bouts, the Annunciation, left panel of the Tríptych of the Virgin’s Life, c.1445., oil
on wood, 80x217 cm (the triptych in all); 80x50 cm (the Annunciation). Prado Museum,
Madrid. [Nº. Inv, P1461]. Wikipedia Commons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych_of_the_Virgin%27s_Life_(Bouts)#/media/File:Tr%C
3%ADptico_de_la_vida_de_la_Virgen_(Bouts).jpg – Last access: 01.11.2021.
6 Benozzo Gozzoli, the Annunciation, panel of the predella of La Madonna della Cintola,
c. 1450-1452. Pinacoteca Vaticana. Wikipedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Madonna_della_Cintola_by_Benozzo_Gozzoli
#/media/File:Benozzo_gozzoli,_madonna_della_cintola,_06.JPG – Last access: 01.11.2021.
7 Piero della Francesca, the Annunciation, c. 1469-1470, mixed media on wood,
122x194 cm. Top of the Polittico di Sant’Antonio, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria,
Perugia. Wikipedia Commons:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Piero%2C_Polittico_di_Sant%27A
ntonio_05.jpg – Last access: 01.11.2021.




108
Fenestella II (2021): 93-110



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