The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius

Last updated
The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius
The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius - Carlo Crivelli - National Gallery.jpg
Artist Carlo Crivelli
Year1486
TypeEgg and oil on canvas
Dimensions207 cm× 146.7 cm(81 in× 57.8 in)
Location National Gallery, London

The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius is an altarpiece by Italian artist Carlo Crivelli showing an artistic adaptation of the Annunciation. [1] It was painted for the Church of SS. Annunziata in the Italian town of Ascoli Piceno, in the region of Marche, to celebrate the self-government granted to the town in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV. [2] The painting was removed to the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan in 1811, but passed to Auguste-Louis de Sivry in 1820, and had reached England by the mid-19th century. It has been housed in the National Gallery in London since it was donated by Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton in 1864. [2]

Contents

Themes

The light ray from the sky represents Mary receiving Jesus Christ into her womb by the Holy Spirit. [3] The closed passage into the depth at the left and the flask of pure water in Mary's bedroom conventionally refer to Mary's virginity. [3] The winged angel Gabriel is depicted with Saint Emidius, the patron saint of Ascoli Piceno carrying a model of that town. [2] The apple in the foreground represents the forbidden fruit and associated fall of man. The cucumber symbolizes the promise of resurrection and redemption. [3] The peacock symbolizes associated immortality, because it was believed that its flesh never decayed. [3] An oriental carpet adorns the loggia on the first floor of the Mary's house.

The bottom portion of the painting features the coats of arms of Pope Sixtus IV and the local bishop, Prospero Caffarelli. [2] The Latin words libertas ecclesiastica (church liberty) refer to the self-government of Ascoli Piceno under the general oversight of the Catholic Church. [3]

In fringe theories, the halo of the Holy Spirit on the painting is sometimes interpreted as a UFO. [4] According to historian Massimo Polidoro, the circular form in the sky is "a vortex of angels in the clouds, another frequent representation of God in Medieval and Renaissance sacred works of art". Polidoro calls the UFO explanation, "reinterpreting with the eyes of twenty-first-century Europeans the product of other cultures". [5]

The inscriptions on the bottom read ″OPVS CAROLI CRIVELLI VENETI 1486.

See also

Related Research Articles

Year 1482 (MCDLXXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascoli Piceno</span> Town in Marche, Italy

Ascoli Piceno is a comune (municipality) and capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Italian region of Marche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Crivelli</span> Italian Renaissance painter (c. 1430 – c. 1495)

Carlo Crivelli was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione, and Mantegna. He left the Veneto by 1458 and spent most of the remainder of his career in the March of Ancona, where he developed a distinctive personal style that contrasts with that of his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini.

<i>Portinari Altarpiece</i> Triptych by Hugo van der Goes

The Portinari Altarpiece or Portinari Triptych is an oil-on-wood triptych painting by the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes, commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, representing the Adoration of the Shepherds. It measures 253 x 304 cm, and is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy. This altarpiece is filled with figures and religious symbols. Of all the late-fifteenth-century Flemish artworks, this painting is said to be the most studied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St. Trophime, Arles</span>

The Church of St. Trophime (Trophimus) is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral located in the city of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department of southern France. It was built between the 12th century and the 15th century, and is in the Romanesque architectural tradition. The sculptures over the church's portal, particularly the Last Judgement, and the columns in the adjacent cloister, are considered some of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture.

<i>Madonna of Foligno</i> Painting by Raphael

The Madonna of Foligno is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, executed c. 1511–1512. First painted on wood panel, it was later transferred to canvas.

<i>Disputation of the Holy Sacrament</i> Fresco by Raphael

The Disputation of the Sacrament, or Disputa, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1510 as the first part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. At the time, this room was known as the Stanza della Segnatura, and was the private papal library where the supreme papal tribunal met.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Lilio</span> Italian painter

Andrea Lilio was an Italian painter born in Ancona, hence he also is known as L'Anconitano.

<i>Maestà</i> (Duccio) Altarpiece by Duccio for Siena Cathedral, dismembered and partially lost

The Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio, is an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in Tuscany in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna and is his most famous work. Duccio's the Maestà was originally composed with a front and back side that relied on each other to encompass the full knowledge of the altarpiece. This was the first altarpiece to contain both a front and back side. The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emygdius</span> Trier-born Roman bishop and martyr (279–309)

Saint Emygdius was a Christian bishop who is venerated as a martyr. Tradition states that he was killed during the persecution of Diocletian.

The Church of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila is the oldest church in the district of Haret Zuweila, near the Fatimid section of Cairo. It was probably built around the AD 10th century, though it is first mentioned in writing in the early 12th century on the occasion of the consecration of the new bishop of Cairo under Macarius' Papacy. The Church of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila was the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria from c. 1400 AD to 1520 AD.

Pietro Alemanno was an Italian-Austrian painter of the Renaissance period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Anatolian animal carpets</span>

Anatolian animal carpets represent a special type of pile-woven carpet, woven in the geographical region of Anatolia during the Seljuq and early Ottoman period, corresponding to the 14th–16th century. Very few animal-style carpets still exist today, and most of them are in a fragmentary state. Animal carpets were frequently depicted by Western European painters of the 14th–16th century. By comparison of the few surviving carpets with their painted counterparts, these paintings helped to establish a timeline of their production, and support our knowledge about the early Turkish carpet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diocesan museum of Ascoli Piceno, Italy</span>

The Diocesan Museum in the Italian town of Ascoli Piceno is located in one wing of the ecclesiastical palazzo, which also contains the city's pinacoteca and the state archeological museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montalto Cathedral</span>

Montalto Cathedral, otherwise the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta e San Vito, is the principal Roman Catholic church of the town of Montalto delle Marche, province of Ascoli Piceno in the region of Le Marche, Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The church was formerly, from 1586, the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Montalto. When the diocese was subsumed into the present Diocese of San Benedetto del Tronto–Ripatransone–Montalto in 1986, Montalto Cathedral became a co-cathedral in the new diocese. It was created a basilica minor by Pope Paul VI in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santissima Annunziata, Ascoli Piceno</span> Roman Catholic church in Ascoli Piceno, Italy

Santissima Annunziata was a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Annunciation in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. It is located in the Parco dell'Annunziata. The whole complex was the result of extensions to an original 13th century set of buildings.

<i>Saint Peter Martyr Altarpiece</i> Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli

The St Peter Martyr Altarpiece or Minor San Domenico Altarpiece is a altarpiece in tempera and gold on panel by the Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli, executed c. 1476. Its central panel of the Madonna and Child, signed "OPVS CAROLI CRIVELLI VENETI", is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The altarpiece's other panels were seen in Rome by Luigi Lanzi in 1789 before being moved to Florence with the Rinuccini family. In 1868 it moved from the Demidov collection to the National Gallery in London, where they still hang.

<i>1476 Altarpiece</i> 1476 polyptych by Carlo Crivelli

The 1476 Altarpiece or San Domenico Altarpiece is a 1476 tempera and gold on panel altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli. Its central panel of the Pietà is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, whilst the other nine are now in the National Gallery, London.

<i>Massa Fermana Altarpiece</i> 1468 altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli

The Massa Fermana Altarpiece is a 1468 tempera and gold on panel by the Italian painter Carlo Crivelli, held in Santi Lorenzo e Silvestro church in the town of Massa Fermana. It is signed "KAROLVS CRIVELLVS VENETVS PINXIT HOC OPVS MCCCCLXVIII". It is his earliest known surviving work and is notable for dating his return to Italy.

<i>Lenti Madonna</i> Painting by Carlo Crivelli

The Lenti Madonna or Bache Madonna is a tempera and gold on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli, executed c. 1472–1473, and signed OPVS KAROLI CRIVELLI VENETI. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which it entered in 1944.

References

  1. ↑ "Smarthistory – Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius". The National Gallery . Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Charles Harrison (2009). An Introduction to Art. Yale University Press. p. 128. ISBN   978-0300109153.
  4. ↑ Michael Carter (2013). Alien Scriptures: Extraterrestrials in the Holy Bible. Grave Distractions Publications. p. 44. ISBN   978-0989029346.
  5. ↑ Polidoro, Massimo (2018). "Does the Vatican Hold a Painting of a UFO?". Skeptical Inquirer. 42 (3). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.