Artibus et Historiae no. 13 (VII)

1986, ISSN 0391-9064

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SUSAN KOSLOW - The Curtain-Sack: A Newly Discovered Incarnation Motif in Rogier van der Weyden's Columba Annunciation

Curtain-sacks, when depicted in certain contexts, such as scenes of birth and death and most frequently Annunciations, as in Rogier van der Weyden's Columba Annunciation (Munich), symbolize the Incarnation. Created by 1415 in Franco-Flemish circles, the symbol was used by numerous 15th-century Netherlandish, German, and French artists. That the curtain-sack was endowed with incarnational significance followed from its physical likeness to late medieval representations of the womb as well as to the abomasum of ruminants and curd-sacks. If womb-like in appearance, then conception could be imagined as analogically occurring within it. The embryogenic processes then invoked were Aristotelian. Central was a cheese analogy which likened foetal formation to curdling. Both the abomasum and curd-sacks stored curds and the former was even used to manufacture them. Through these associations, the curtain-sack became a potent iconographic symbol.