Note 12 to the author's "Millais's "Mariana": Literary Painting, the Pre-Raphaelite Gothic, and the Iconology of the Marian Artist"
"The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Anglican High Church," Burlington Magazine 111 (1969) 294- 95. Millais had the opportunity to examine the stained glass Annunciation close-up when he shared the scaffolding of John Hungerford Pollen who was painting the Merton Chapel ceiling. See Anne Pollen, John Hungerford Pollen 1820-1902 (London: Murray, 1912) 268. Significantly, whereas the Merton angel looks askance at the Virgin with a beady black eye, Millais's angel appears to be gazing at Mariana, an important alteration which engages the female figure in an act of confrontation with the male glass image.
Last modified 7 October 2001