Ornament and Illusion of Carlo Crivelli: “...the finest Renaissance artist you never heard of.”
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The Annunciation with St. Emidius. 1482. The National Gallery. London. (currently on loan till Jan. 25 to the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston)
This is one of those works of art that makes you say to yourself “where do I even START with this painting?”
There is almost an overload of desire, joy, fulfillment -- you name your rapture -- in simply looking and responding to it...color, design, architectural richness, the grand pleasure of its perspectival plunge (the vanishing point re-discovered!), its ornamentality, its fabulous trompe l’oeile at the picture frame, its gradations of the shades of red...(and please feel free to share your comments/explanations for the warted cucumber on the edge of the picture frame...I’m not going there...).
First off, we have to ask why in the grand history of Renaissance art is its painter, Carlo Crivelli, not celebrated along with the names of the other great masters of his time? Well, for one thing he wasn’t really “from” either of the two major centers of that art, Florence and Venice (even though Crivelli identified himself as a Venetian artist). He was a native of the Marches region of Italy and something of an outsider for the art centers of his day. So his art somehow got neglected and it is our great loss, but now happily recovered!...
This painting happened because of “libertas ecclesiastica” as you can see announced at the bottom of the painting. It means that Ascoli Picena was now free of papal rule in the running of their city and the city’s Franciscan convent commissioned this work in celebration. Thanks to God, the city said, and thanks to its protectoress, the Virgin Mary (and a nod to St. Emidius, the town’s patron saint) who is seen with the angel Gabriel to make the annunciation to her (she stays safely at her prie dieu behind walls). This papal announcement happened on the Feast Day of the Annunciation. And it explains why Emidius appears offering a model of the city to Mary.
So, a retelling of this story was in order, in the terms of religious painting of the day and we see the light from God beaming down upon the Virgin Mary, and at that moment impregnating her with the Son of God. Not the first time in this particular fashion has this been portrayed in Western Christian art, mind you. See Fra Angelico here (and note the salutation/respectful gesture of the angel and Mary’s folded arms in both paintings)
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A word here about UFO’s. There was a strange time when some oddly sighted folks talked about how Crivelli was documenting the appearance of UFO’s in his swirling cloud above that sent the beam (and the Holy Spirit in the form of a small white bird) directly through a tiny gold mouse hole in Mary’s upper floor. As you can see in the detail here, the extra terrestrial does not, alas, appear unless you want to make it a religious ET and hey, who am I to argue that it isn’t?
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Enough is going on to keep us busy elsewhere in this painting anyway. Let’s wonder, here, about the fading popularity of the use of Gothic gold (note it is more prevalent with the somewhat earlier Fra Angelico than Crivelli -- check the halos or lack thereof with the Crivelli), a marker in the divide between the late Gothic and the Early Renaissance art (a brief glimpse of it though thanks to Crivelli’s sparing use in the helmeted Gabriel and the saint’s tunic).
But back to the birds.We see the swirl of sky and birds in the upper left, the tiny Holy Spirit, the small birds on rails and little bird cage above the Virgin’s room (and another midway back) and, of course, that over-the-top peacock. How many do you count? My ageing eyes tell me nine or perhaps ten...
But, let’s move to Crivelli’s use of color, most especially his shades of red. This work marks Crivelli as a master of composition and color together. The two Anatolian carpets fluttering from upper windows are meticulously crafted as we see in the detail here
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The shade of red Crivelli employs for the entablature around the Virgin’s house, her darker red gown punched and scrolled with gold, the brick red of the wall to the left are impressive in that the colors work so well together. The artist adds the shade on the monk’s cap mid distance and the little girl’s sleeve (as she clings to the balcony wall to see what is going on) and the man’s uniform beside her. The terra cotta entablature is set off by a delicately ornate fretting around the Virgin’s door. A billowing curtain and pillows inside her house are yet other subtle tones of the color.
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By now you are probably at the point where your feet hurt and you have to make room for others who are crowding round to see (but you are reluctant to give up your spot)...I suggest you sit down on the nearest bench and give up even trying to leave...and at least plan a day to return, or perhaps right after lunch...there is always the Gardner’s cafe...because questions will linger, and you will want to seek the answers further...
...give up, the artist got under your skin...it happens, just go with it. I know, my friend, I know...
= new reply since forum marked as read
I wonder if Escher ever saw this painting.
It is fabulous, CTyankee! Thank you so much for the weekly art history lesson. 
that while the apple signfies Mary, the cucumber must signifiy Christ. It appears virtually nowhere in the myriad Renaissance fruit/ flower presentations except for Crivelli who also featured it here
In this painting, Baby Jesus appears to be sitting on a whoopee cushion.
Technically she's considered a Baroque-era artist - much later than the one in the OP. Things were becoming much more dramatic by then. I believe Gentileschi was a disciple of Caravaggio; you can definitely see the similarities. In some ways she was even better, I think.
however, I do love the painting...another cuke if I am seeing it straight...wow, Crivelli had a thing for them...one of the major art critics reviewing "annunciation" remarked that cucumbers were pretty rare, if non existent, with any other artist of crivelli's day...he must have loved their texture and how they 'own" their part on the scene...or am I imagining thing...
if you are around...doing the research phase now (always the fun part)...
