 The Virgin holds an innovative and unusual position . She seems to be either rising or swooning as if having lost her balance , a divergence from her conventional seated or kneeling pose . Blum believes " one may search in vain in other Netherlandish Annunciation panels of the fifteenth century of a Virgin positioned as she is here " . Art historian Penny Jolly suggests the painting shows a birthing position , a motif van der Weyden experimented with in the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece , where the Virgin 's collapse results in a childbirth @-@ like posture , and with the Descent from the Cross , in which Mary Magdalen bends and crouches – similar to the position Memling 's Magdalen assumes in his Lamentation . Flanking the Virgin , and holding her , are two attendant angels . The one to the left lifts the Virgin 's robe while the other gazes at the viewer , " soliciting our response " , according to Ainsworth . Both are small @-@ statured , solemn , and according to Blum , in mood " comparable to that of Gabriel . " Other than the presence of the angels , Memling shows a typical upper @-@ merchant @-@ class 15th @-@ century Flemish bedchamber . 
