Byzantine Iconography
Eastern depictions of the apocryphal narrative mimic the scriptural account of the annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary and take the form of a reclining Agios Joachim beside a double-vesicled fountain or well, implying Mary's perpetual virginity flows from the mystery of her Immaculate Conception in the womb of her mother Agia Anna in linear fashion conform with Eastern creedal statements on the procession of the Holy Spirit. Absent modern meteorology, and therefore the scientific knowledge of how surface water is replenished naturally by atmospheric moisture, the early Christian artist was limited by linear symbolism of gravity known in the topography of the region. Dewfall and the phenomenon of manna in the desert would have been known but revered as ineffable.
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