Artibus et Historiae no. 39 (XX)
1999, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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YOSHIAKI NISHINO - The Annunciation Triptych of Aix and Its Iconographical Program
The central panel of the Annunciation Triptych of Aix is characterized by a number of typological iconographies between «sub lege» and «sub gratia»; the oratory at its left side with Romanesque arches, metaphor of the «Synagoga», is contrasted by the principal arcades at the right with Gothic ogives, that of the «Ecclesia»: the exterior landscape viewed at the extreme left side, based on Is. LX, 1-8, is corresponding with a interior scene at the extreme right of a High Mass in which a priest standing at the epistle side of an altar, beside a deacon holding a calix, is reading sacramental words of the «Canon Missae» from the Missae Romanum: "Hic est enim Calix Sanguis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti". The words of the "novum testamentum" have theologically a close relationship with prophecies of Jeremiah XXXI, 31 ("foedus novum"); iconographically, this link justifies a presence of the figure of Prophet Jeremiah at the right wing in correspondence with that of Prophet Isaiah at the left one. The hexagonal lectern depicted in the middle of the central panel, as a visual axis of composition of the Triptych, with a shaft in spiral, allusion to a wine press (Is. LXIII, 3), and a seated monkey on the top cleansed by divine radiations, symbol of Original Sin maculating the Virgin, could be considered as a symbol of Salvation, "Fountain of Life" transposing the world from «sub lege» to «sub gratia». The iconographical program of the inner parties of the Triptych, as a whole, could be inspired with a Bernardine mariology by which the Virgin in a Mystery of Salvation is located as a "mediator" between Old Alliance and New Testament. This mariological concept had been preached by St. Bernardine of Siena in whom the King Rene had put his personal faith.