The Visitation 

Curator: Here we have “The Visitation,” an oil painting attributed to Vicente Juan Masip. What strikes you most when you first look at it? Editor: Honestly? It feels a bit... static. Like everyone’s been asked to hold perfectly still for a very long photo. Beautifully rendered, certainly, but I'm not quite feeling the drama you'd expect from such a significant biblical scene. Curator: I can see that. The figures are very composed, almost sculptural, and the round shape, called a tondo, tends to contain the energy. It gives a sense of harmonious balance, if that makes sense, as well as the circular and repeating idea of the sacred and whole. It's interesting how Masip chose to represent the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth—pregnant with Jesus and John the Baptist respectively—which could easily have been depicted as explosive with divine excitement. Editor: Absolutely. Thinking of Mary and Elizabeth together often invokes this vibrant and warm feeling, whereas here there is an unusual color palette. Why this slightly somber hue, I wonder? What impact would a lighter and brighter color arrangement have on my feelings toward the work, I wonder. Also the slightly downturned expressions give me a somber rather than uplifting feel. Curator: I get it. It’s like everyone is exhausted or maybe pondering on things to come... Given the political turmoil in Europe at the time of its probable creation, this feels appropriate, somehow. We could also look at the specific choices of drapery and spatial design—which harks back to older ways of displaying the wealth and status of religious iconography. A formal reference point is the architectural feature in the middle-ground where classical form merges with the rounded archway and acts almost like a classical mirror to this biblical moment. Editor: Oh, I like that! The reflection between ancient civilization and early Christianity and maybe also linking in elements of faith in general, old and new, coming together as the divine act in the painting merges these moments together. Well now I can’t see it in the same static way again. Curator: Wonderful! It's often the interplay between what seems restrained and the potent emotion just beneath the surface that makes early Renaissance art so compelling, don't you think?