Of Mary and doves

(Tampa Bay) - Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill releases white doves in Moscow's Kremlin on Thursday, to mark the Russian Orthodox holiday of the Annunciation.

On the relation between the Annunciation, doves, and iconography:

The dove

At the beginning of the 11th century, the image of a dove flying toward Mary’s ear started to make an appearance in Western representations of the Annunciation, albeit rather infrequently initially. The dove symbolizes the act of conception which took place in the Virgin’s ear – first mentioned in the 4th century by Athanasius of Alexandria: “Come and gaze upon this marvellous feat: the woman conceives through the hearing of her ears!” Ephrem of Syria wrote: “Like the Burning Bush on Horeb (Mount Sinai) which carried God in the heart of the flames, so Mary brought Christ into her virginity: through her ear the Divine Word of the Father entered and dwelt secretly in her womb.” In the 12th century, in both Eastern and Western art, the image was often used of the Holy Spirit-Dove descending from on high towards Mary’s ear via a beam of light. Noteworthy examples of this can be found in the mosaics both of Monreale cathedral and the Church of the Martorana in Sicily.

- Source: Symbolism in the Annunciation

The dove and the angel

Annunciation mosiac in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome

In the 5th century, in the mosaic of the triumphal arch in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, a flying dove appears for the first time in an annunciation, symbolising the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit as a dove can be found only once, namely in the account of Christ’s baptism. However, the Council of Nicea in 325 declared that the dove of the baptism was a valid symbol for the Holy Spirit. From then on, the dove will be depicted above all in the annunciations of Mary and then later in the scenes of the Pentecost and eventually in the images of the creation and the Trinity. It should be said though that the depiction in Santa Maria Maggiore remained for a long time a unique example, perhaps due to the aversion towards the still existing cult of Venus which also used the dove as a conventional symbol. Four hundred years would have to pass before this symbol took hold in Christianity: it became a fully integrated part of the annunciation iconography in the 11th-12th centuries.

In the 6th century, we witness a reversal in the positions of Mary and the angel. Mary begins to appear on the right of the scene. The main figure has thus been moved, following the direction in which Greek and Latin are written and read (from left to right), so that the eye stops on the image of the Virgin.

The angel Gabriel is portrayed usually alone, facing Mary, holding a rod or a sceptre, the symbol of the staff of command that God – the celestial emperor – entrusts to his special ambassador. However, there are exceptions. Sometimes the scene introduces more than one angel. For example, in the above-mentioned mosaic of Santa Maria Maggiore, four angels surround Mary. Yet, it is after the Council of Trent (1545-1563) that we begin to see an increasing number of angels and a multiplication of little putti.

- Source: Iconography of the Annunciation