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Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation, 1898, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art

 Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Annunciation surprises the viewer with its unconventionality. Unlike other paintings that depict the same scene, Tanner portrays Mary as neither calm nor preoccupied by faith. Her frightened eyes fixed on Gabriel’s uncanny presence looks rather overwhelmed. The frown on her eyebrows along with the way she nervously bites her lips even reveal the possibility of doubt. Nonetheless, she is sitting up straight with her hands held firmly together. Mary, despite evident fear, accepts the role that the archangel imposes on her; she is embodying genuine courage. Courage is the cognitive and affective acceptance of the existential predicament to which one is consigned, intending to overcome the fear derived therefrom through action or patience, in order to do what is right, to be in the right place.