L’ange de l’Annonciation, chef de chœur dans Il Vangelo secondo Matteo de Pasolini

Abstract

Arch-mediator between the divine and the mundane, the angelic icon - and the Biblical episode of the Annunciation in particular - stimulate the contemporary imagination, as the mystery of the incarnation itself cannot be represented, but rather figured. Relying on the viewer’s world of references – from Biblical texts to Medieval and Renaissance iconography (Giotto, Fra Angelico, Limbourg, del Cossa, Crivelli, della Francesca among others), Pasolini also extensively resorts to sound in his Gospel According to St. Matthew. The film seeks to allow the viewer ‘hear’ angels, from sacred music (Bach, Misa Luba, Negro Spiritual), profane music (Mozart, Prokofiev, Blind Willie Johnson) to choirs used as voice over. Hybrid cinematic devices question the status of images while they evoke the immanent presence of angels – metaphorically the unspeakable and unintelligible.

Keywords

• angel
• Annunciation
• Gospel According to St. Matthew
• Renaissance painting
• voice over
• sacred music