Annunciation Altar

Annunciation Altar... more

by Marc David Leviton

Buy the Original Mixed Media

Price

$25,000

Dimensions

48.000 x 120.000 x 24.000 inches

Title

Annunciation Altar

Artist

Marc David Leviton

Medium

Mixed Media

Description

Annunciation Altar
by Marc David Leviton and Kyle Johnston


This is a collaborative artwork between artists Marc David Leviton and Kyle Johnston. The artwork inspects and questions the myths, limitations, and devices used in creating religious dogmas.

The Annunciation Altar is constructed with long standing tenets and traditions of Christian religious iconography and symbolism. Dating back to the times of the Dutch and Italian Renaissance, artists such as Jan van Eyck (Flemish) and Raphael (Italian) were commissioned to create altar paintings depicting the Archangel Gabriel delivering the message to the Virgin Mary that god plans to conceive a child with her.


Pedestal Section Description (Top to Bottom):

The head on the pedestal is that of the Archangel Gabriel. His head covering is white symbolizing his purity. Adorning his head is an antique telephone operator’s communication head piece symbolizing him as the messenger. Gabriel is the patron saint of messengers, such as postal workers and people that work in telecommunications.

The crystal vase, on which Gabriel’s head rests, is symbolic of purity, innocence, and virginity. There are incidences of artists of the Italian Renaissance placing crystal objects in proximity of virgins in their artworks to capture and reflect these concepts. Crystal glass was also referred to as Jewish glass in the 12th and 13th centuries. The gold base of the crystal vase again refers to purity. Gabriel’s message is “crystal clear” and pure.

The stocking represents travel, as in life’s journey.

A Mason jar is for preserving and is used here as a metaphor for preserving God’s creations and his word.

The jar is filled with water. Water is the symbol of life and has been used universally as a symbol of purity and fertility. Water is also referenced in the bible almost a thousand times.

Within the jar are male genitalia, a symbol of fertility.

The Jewish religion requires its male children circumcised eight days after their birth in the covenant made with God and this included Jesus. Jesus circumcision is celebrated by the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ or the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The Holy Prepuce or Holy Foreskin is a relic attributed with Jesus and considered to be the Holy of Holies or sanctum sanctorum. The foreskin is reported to have magical powers.

The pedestal itself is indicative of “being placed on a pedestal” or above others, as the Archangel Gabriel and God certainly are.


Main Altar Section Description (Bottom to Top):

The burnt box at the bottom of the altar describes burnt offerings as described in Leviticus 1:1-17.
God asks for the first fruits (first born son, choicest paints and animals for sacrifice) not the leavings. A burnt offering was made by the Virgin Mary when it was time for her purification. The offering signified that the parents of Jesus had no wealth and were towards the bottom of the social chain.

The Rubenesque figure within the tripod support stand is the Virgin. Here the Virgin relates to a thirty-five thousand year old Venus figurine known as the “The Pear” of Brassempouy, France. This figurine is one of the oldest and most accurate representations of a female yet discovered for it’s time.
The tripod and circular steel stand has the symbols for female and male gender, plus birth and death. A triangle pointing down is female and a triangle pointing upwards is male. A circle is a female symbol and a centric circle means birth and death; for birth and death can happen simultaneously. The three legs of the tripod may also be integrated as “The Father, Son, and The Holy Ghost.”

The desiccated wooden box, in which the head of Christ is hung, represents the manger in which he was born.

The head in the glass jar symbolizes the isolation of being a god.

The barbed wire becomes a metaphor for the crown of thorns and Jesus’ torment.

The water in the jar represents Jesus’ purity and life giving force.

The altar spire is reminiscent of Christian catacombs in that it relates to bones beginning use as tomb decoration. On the opposite side, it resembles a tombstone without inscription.

The face on the back of the box is either Father Time with his watches or Satan in the sanctuary, biding his time.


Alternative Meanings:


Gabriel’s Head: desiccated and mummified.

Communication Devise: no speaking, no questioning, listening and absorbing, brainwashing.

Crystal Vase: funerary urn.

Stocking: captured, netted, or strangled by the word of God.

Mason Jar: contained or imprisoned by God’s word.

Water: drowned in God’s word.

Male Genitalia: castration of life, if disobeyed.

The Pedestal: isolation and loneliness.

Altar Spire: death is inevitable and waiting for us. As if you are looking up from your own grave.

Face with Watches: death

Wooden Box: poverty, coffin.

JC’s Head in a Jar, wrapped in barbed wire, hanging from a chain: self-imposed prison or hell.

Water in Jar: drowning on one’s own words.

Tripod and Circular Steel Stand: female or male, birth and death.

Venus Figure: legless, armless, and headless:
“As in all the congregations of the holy ones, let the women
keep silent in the congregations, for it is not permitted for them
to speak, but let them be in subjection, even as the Law says. If,
then, they want to learn something, let them question their own
husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in
a congregation.”-1 Corinthians 14:33b-35 NWT

Burnt Box: coffin of the dead that have been wrongly murdered or sacrificed in the name of God.

Text by Marc David Leviton, MFA

Uploaded

April 20th, 2011