The temple in images of the Annunciation: A double dogmatic symbol according to the Latin theological tradition (6th-15th centuries)

Abstract

This article aims to unveil the doctrinal meanings that many Church Fathers and theologians have deciphered in some Old Testament terms such as templum, tabernaculum, domus Sapientiae, arca and other similar expressions related to sacred spaces or containers. In many specific cases, they have interpreted these expressions as metaphors or symbols of the Virgin Mary’s womb and Christ’s human nature. As a consequence, these interpretive approaches are reflected in some images of the Annunciation of the 14th and 15th centuries. So this article will analyze first a selected set of patristic, theological, and liturgical texts, and secondly, will examine eight paintings of the Annunciation with a temple-shaped house to see if there is an essential relation between those exegetical texts and these pictorial images. Based on that double analysis, it seems reasonable to conclude that the temple depicted in these Annunciations is a visual metaphor that illustrates the doctrinal meanings decrypted by the Fathers and theologians in their interpretations of the textual metaphors mentioned above.