Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 4

Rephrased, Relocated, Repainted: visual anachronism as a narrative device

Gyngyvr Horvth

Abstract (E): When Carlo Crivelli placed the scene of The Annunciation (1486, National
Gallery, London) in the Renaissance town of Ascoli, dressed the humbled Mary in the latest
fashion, and included the intervening Saint Emidius, the patron saint of the city, he created a
visual analogy of what Aelred of Rievaulx, a Cistercian monk had advised to his readers three
centuries earlier: First enter the room of blessed Mary () wait there for the arrival of the
angel, so that you may see him as he comes in, hear him as he utters his greeting, and so,
filled with amazement and rapt out of yourself, greet your most sweet Lady together with the
angel. Both the painting, with its updated 15th century stage, and the text, with the appeal to
join, created the atmosphere of presentness in order to encourage active participation in the
biblical event. Crivellis ahistorical rendering of the story uses multiplied temporal and
diegetic levels, and can be best described by the phenomenon of visual anachronism, an
effective narrative strategy still used by such contemporary artists as Cindy Sherman or Adi
Nes. This essay will examine the phenomenon of visual anachronism and its role in narrative
understanding. This text will argue that there is a difference in the narrative perception
between the that-time and the present-day viewer, and in both cases it depends on the
beholders time experience.

Abstract (F): Lorsque Crivelli situait son Annonciation (1486, National Gallery, Londres)
dans le paysage contemporain de la ville d'Ascoli, reprsentait la Vierge dans des habits
d'poque et donnait une place l'intervention de Saint Emidius, le patron de la ville, il crait
l'quivalent visuel de ce que le moine cistercien, Aelred de Rievaulx, avait conseill de faire
ses lecteurs trois sicles plus tt: "Entrez d'abord dans la chambre de la Vierge bnie (...),
attendez l'arrive de l'ange pour que vous le voyiez au moment de son entre, coutez-le
quand il prononce son salut, puis, merveill et comme sorti de vous-mme, saluez votre
douce Mre en mme temps que l'ange." Tant le tableau, avec son dcor moderne du 15e
sicle, que le texte, qui invite se joindre l'vnement, suscitent une atmosphre de prsence
qui encourage une participation active l'vnement biblique. Crivelli opte pour une
reprsentation modernise de l'histoire qui s'appuie sur une multiplicit de niveaux temporels
et digtiques et que l'on peut fort bien dcrire l'aide du concept d'anachronisme visuel, une
stratgie narrative trs efficace qu'utilisent toujours des artistes contemporains comme Cindy
Sherman ou Adi Nes. Cet article se propose d'analyser le phnomne de l'anachronisme visuel
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 5

et son rle dans la comprhension du rcit. Il voudrait dmontrer qu'il existe une diffrence
dans la perception narrative de "ce temps-l" et le spectateur contemporain, et que dans les
deux cas la diffrence s'explique par la manire dont le spectateur concern vit le temps.

Keywords: Anachronism, Crivelli, experience, Renaissance, presentness



According to St Luke (1, 26-38), the Annunciation took place in the town of Nazareth
in Galilee. Gabriel, the angel of God, visited Mary and informed her about the Incarnation. In
a short conversation Gabriel explained the miraculous manner of Christs conception and
foretold the birth of the child named Jesus, who, according to prophecy, will bring the eternal
kingdom onto Earth. The biblical text is brief yet substantial. There is no description of any
specific details of the scene.
Having studied the iconography of the Annunciation in fourteenth and fifteenth
century painting, David M Robb considers its basic structural elements to be almost constant:
the Virgin is seated, in the act of reading or interrupted by the angel kneeling before her.
They are thus more or less alike if they are judged by the iconographic rules applicable to
earlier art. But the settings all differ. (Robb 480). Carlo Crivellis Ascoli Annunciation from
1486 (The Annunciation with Saint Emidius, London, National Gallery) roughly follows
Robbs scheme: the kneeling Mary is depicted in her chamber at a prayer-desk, Gabriel
approaches from the left. The humble gestures of Marys hand and her pose suggest that the
conversation has already finished and the Virgin is ready to conceive: from above, the dove of
the Holy Spirit arrives, entering the Virgins chamber through a small hole in the entablature.
What makes Crivellis Annunciation interesting is the setting, which Robb notes to be a
variable (480). Crivelli, like many of his contemporaries, took advantage of the indeterminacy
of the Biblical passage on this point. The stage is designed to be the contemporary town of
Ascoli inhabited by local citizens. These are dressed in the latest fashion, as are Gabriel and
the Virgin. Not only are the citizens of Ascoli eyewitnesses to the Annunciation, the intimacy
of the scene is further disturbed by St Emidius, patron of Ascoli, who holds a model of the
city.
Thomas Tolley characterises the citizens, their contemporary costumes and the
presence of St Emidius in Crivellis painting as extra-narrative elements. In fact, the citizens
and especially St Emidius are not extradiegetic, as Tolley thinks. As I will argue, they are the
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 6

most important constitutive elements of the narrative, not of the story of the Annunciation, but
of the story Crivelli offers to us. Indeed, these pictorial elements clearly indicate that the
Biblical episode has been re-narrated and fully reinterpreted. The key to this new
interpretation is the actualisation of the Annunciation; the free rendering of the temporal
layers constitutes an intentional anachronism. Anachronism is used here as a narrative device
to reframe and relocate the religious scene. In the religious paintings of Renaissance Italy, as I
will argue, anachronisms were often used visually to historicise biblical, that is, textual
narratives.
The history and function of the Ascoli Annunciation
As is frequently the case, the story of Carlo Crivellis painting and the story that it
represents are not separable.
1
Pictorial signs of presentness
The Ascoli Annunciation was commissioned in 1486 for the
church of the Santissima Annunziata in Ascoli Piceno to commemorate an important event in
the chronicle of the city. Ascoli had requested a kind of self-government from Pope Sixtus IV
in 1481. The letter conveying that this had been granted reached the town on 25 March 1482,
the day of the feast of Annunciation. This day now became a double feast: of the
Annunciation and of Ascolis special privilege, the Libertas Ecclesiastica. This Freedom
under the Church was a newly constructed category, a special right that gave Ascoli a certain
freedom, the right to self-determination regarding internal civic issues, although the city
remained under the papal throne. Celebrating the new status of the town two paintings were
ordered, both with the theme of the Annunciation. The first is painted by a Crivelli-follower
Pietro Alemanno in 1484, and was hung in the Chapel of the Town Hall. A second
commission, indicating the growing importance of the privilege, is the one by Crivelli. We
know that from the first anniversary an annual procession went on to the Church of the
Santissima Annunziata, so Crivellis altarpiece had both a civic and religious commitment and
had an important role in the constitution of local Ascoli identity as well.
There are many features in Crivellis altarpiece that refer to the events and
environment of the contemporary Ascoli. First, there is the painted inner frame below the
scene bearing the inscription LIBERTAS ECCLESIASTICA, referring directly to the grant of 1482.
The inscription is, on the right, accompanied by the coat of arms of the city of Ascoli. In the
middle appears the arms of Innocent VIII, Sixtus IVs successor as overlord of Ascoli, who
was in office when the painting was completed, and on the left are the arms of Prospero

1
For the basic facts and provenance see Davies and Tolley.
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 7

Caffarelli, Bishop of Ascoli. The painting also carries Crivellis signature and the date of its
completion (1486).
Another sign of contemporaneity is the presence of St Emidius, referring to the local
legend that the privilege was granted through his intercession. Emidius or Emygdius was an
early Christian martyr and also Bishop of Ascoli; he later became a patron saint of the city,
protecting it from plague, earthquake and war: The martyrs were fellow human beings who,
precisely because of their death, now enjoyed intimacy with God. And through that intimacy
came their power to intercede with God on behalf of their devotees. (Marshall 493). In
Crivellis painting Emidius is acting accordingly, although he is not actually interceding with
God, but with the God-mother, the Virgin Mary, through Gabriel. Emidius holds a model of
the town in his hands which makes it explicit that his presence here is as an advocate for the
city, a depositary of the local communitys trust.
There is a seemingly minor episode, which both visually and thematically is related to
the main scene, yet it can also be regarded as a consequence of it. Gabriels delivery of the
divine message to Mary is referenced in a mise-en-abyme motif above the main scene. On the
vertical axis, right above Gabriels head at the top of the arch, the notary of Ascoli, Antonio
Benincasa, can be seen (Lightbown 342). In front of him lies an open book, indicating that he,
like Mary, has been interrupted by a messenger. Benincasa is shown receiving the letter in
which the Pope informs the city of its new privilege. This episode has a crucial role in the
understanding of the visual re-narration of the story of the Annunciation, as will be shown
later.
The presence of Franciscan monks is another pictorial element referring to the towns
contemporary history. Franciscan monks stand at the top of the staircase opposite Marys
house, almost level with the hole in the rim where the Holy Ghost is entering the chamber.
Apart from Emidius, the Franciscans are the closest eye-witnesses to the scene. There are
good historical reasons for the significance given to them pictorially. First, the Santissima
Annunziata, for which Crivellis altarpiece was painted, was a Franciscan church. Secondly,
Sixtus IV, formerly Francesco della Rovere, who granted Ascoli the Libertas Ecclesiastica,
was a Franciscan friar prior to becoming pope. Furthermore, the Marian cult had a special
interest for both the Franciscans and Sixtus IV (Goffen 228-229).
Finally, and most obviously, the entire mise-en-scne provided by Crivelli is
contemporary Renaissance (Lightbown 333-344). The style of Marys house, the street scene
with the citizens of Ascoli dressed according to the latest fashion and all the details of the
urban environment are quattrocento. Of all the elements within the picture that emphasise
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 8

present time, this is the most striking. It is thus the main constituent of the diegetic realm.
Crivelli is specific not only about the domestic interior where the message is delivered to
Mary, but also about geographical placement in general. The structure of the Virgins house
follows contemporary Italian Renaissance architecture; it is similar to the two-storey building
in Piero della Francescas Flagellation (Lightbown 333). The decoration of the house is also
typically Renaissance. Furthermore, Crivellis version of the Annunciation, both in terms of
its general composition (which is opened up toward the beholder) and its inner frame (the
stone ledge) clearly foregrounds its stage-like nature. These elements strengthen the
beholders feeling that she or he, when looking at the Annunciation, sees it happening in
quattrocento Ascoli.
Temporal anachronism as a visual phenomenon
Evidently, many features in Crivellis painting refer to the contemporary, however,
one still does not expect the Annunciation to take place in a quattrocento environment or to be
witnessed by Franciscan monks. In narrative theory such a temporal admixture, incoherence
or inconsistency the placing of an ancient story into a modern environment (or vice versa)
is best described by the concept of visual anachronism. Annette and Jonathan Barnes have
studied anachronism as a general cultural phenomenon, and crystallised a set of definitions for
such phenomena:
Something is an anachronism or anachronistic if and only if it implies
(1) the ascription of "F" to a at t, where
(2) "F" is not of a sort to hold of anything at t, and
(3) "F" is of a sort to hold of something at a time other than t. (258)
This suggests that the Ascoli Annunciation is anachronistic, since the event of the
Annunciation ("F") happens to the Virgin Mary (a) in ancient times and in the town of
Nazareth (time other than t), so it does not pertain to the Virgin Mary in fifteenth-century
Ascoli (at t).
It is important to note three things here. First, for the anachronism to work with the
Barneses definition, a specific date is needed, and this date needs to be fixed. When
examining an anachronistic event, object or person, all other dates, or events with dates,
should be compared to this fixed date. However, if this date is not implied by the context of
the work of art be it a novel, a film or a painting this date may be merely optional.
Second, what is anachronistic in a picture, and what is not, does not necessarily
correspond with the division between diegetic and extradiegetic pictorial realms. For example,
in Crivellis painting, the Franciscans and the Virgin belong to the same diegetic (and
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 9

temporal) world. However, in any reasonable verbal representation, they would have to
belong to different temporal layers. Crivelli placed the Franciscans in the picture precisely to
enable them to witness the Annunciation. Thus these, otherwise different, diegetic realms of
the verbal are fused into one in the visual. Furthermore, there exists another, extradiegetic
level in the altarpiece that is presented by the inner frame, where the coats of arms are placed.
These elements are clearly not part of the scene where the Annunciation is represented, as
they are not visible either to the Franciscans or to the Virgin. So, the inner frame forms
another diegetic layer. To make the existing painterly realms more complex, such elements as
the signature and the date in the lower zone of the columns (which otherwise belong to the
first diegetic level), are clearly extradiegetic elements if understood from the viewpoint of the
Virgin or the Franciscans. These, just as the trompe loeil elements in the foreground, belong
to the level of the inner frame.
Third, anachronisms in the visual realm are usually generated on more than one level,
partly due to the narrative density of the depicted events and also because of the reciprocity
between the events and their setting; or, more generally stated, because of the possible
ambiguity of the reference points. As shown above, from the viewpoint of the Virgin and the
Annunciation, both the quattrocento mise-en-scne and the presence of St Emidius are
anachronistic. From the quattrocento cityscape in general, or in particular from the viewpoint
of the Ascoli notary receiving the papal message, it is anachronistic to be simultaneously
witnessing the Annunciation and seeing the towns patron saint actively intervening in this
scene. Naturally, the same can be said when one takes St Emidius as a reference point.
Consequently, the Barneses formula described above can be applied here in at least three
different ways (258). Anachronism is actually tripled in Crivellis painting, theoretically, each
temporal layer is relativised. In Crivellis altarpiece, the quattrocento setting is the painterly
device that suggests the primary temporal level and establishes the principal narrative.
However, this could have been achieved by purely compositional means as well.
Crivellis Ascoli Annunciation is special as it gives an almost complete inventory of
the methods with which anachronism can be achieved visually.
2

2
A different concept of Renaissance anachronism was proposed by Nagel and Wood in 2005. The principle of
substitution (405) explains why certain works were regarded as antique when they were the last in a long
sequence of replicas. Their idea is developed further in their new book Anachronic Renaissance (2010), which is
not yet known in detail to the present author at the time of the submission of this article.
Before moving to other
relevant examples, it is useful to list the most common painterly strategies for setting visual
anachronisms into play. All of these are here related to the main event of a narrative picture.
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(1) Architectural styles or elements referring to the present (or any other) historical period,
which do not coincide with the actual time of the event.
(2) Figures dressed in costumes belonging to a different historical time(s) than that of the
event.
(3) Referencing the contemporary or any other time with heraldic elements (coats of arms,
shields, imprese).
(4) Including objects not yet existent in the era of the event.
(5) Including events that are not simultaneous with the main action, but rather in the distant
past or future.
(6) Including eye-witnesses, such as patrons, donors or other historical figures not synchronic
with the main event.
(7) Characters (including painters themselves) depicted in the guise of some other figure
(mostly historical, biblical or mythological).
Anachronistic settings in quattrocento Italian painting
In the painterly tradition of the Italian Renaissance, the mise-en-scne provided by
Crivelli is not an isolated case; it is the norm rather than an exception. David M Robb, in his
thorough study of the iconography of early Renaissance Annunciation panels, also examines
the question of the setting. He lists three types of architectural settings and relates them to
certain geographical areas. The first is employed in Italy and is either a portico type or an
open space, the second is the ecclesiastical interior type, the third is what Robb calls a
bourgeois interior, a room in a Flemish house, as seen in the Mrode altarpiece (500). From
this it is clear that Crivelli is not alone in updating the scenery and thus the context of the
Biblical event. All Robbs examples are contemporary, and this suggests that such settings
were commonly used for Annunciation scenes in the period.
Trecento Italian fresco and panel paintings provide some early examples of this
custom, both in terms of general scenery, architectural detailing and costumes. Giottos
Annunciation in the Scrovegni Chapel (1306, Padova) has been thoroughly researched; it
deploys the setting and costumes of contemporary liturgical drama (Jacobus passim). Turning
to early quattrocento Italian examples, it seems that whenever the setting is clearly defined it
is contemporary. Fra Angelicos early panel of the Annunciation (1433-34, Cortona, Museo
Diocesano) stages the scene in an open portico. The narrative is made quite complex by
setting up typological relations, evoked in the sculpted effigy of the prophet Isaiah and the
Expulsion scene in the background. Fra Filippo Lippi also produced a number of
anachronistic Annunciation scenes. Examples from the 1440s certainly belong to this
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 11

tradition. They are staged within rich architectural settings decorated with Renaissance
ornaments. For example, the one in Rome (The Annunciation with two Kneeling Donors, ca.
1440, Galleria Nazionale DArte Antica) shows two contemporary characters witnessing the
scene, the donors Folco Portinari and Folgonaccio. Further examples are Piero della
Francescas fresco of the Annunciation (ca. 1455, Arezzo, San Francesco), which reveals his
classical tastes, or Ghirlandaios Annunciation fresco in the Tornabuoni Chapel (1486-90,
Florence, Santa Maria Novella), where an unmistakeably Tuscan landscape can be seen
through the double-arched Renaissance painted window.
It is worth noting two examples from Venice since Crivelli is most closely related to
this painterly tradition. Both are specific because their architectural settings echo the
architecture of the churches where they were originally placed. The Church of Santa Maria dei
Miracoli in Venice used to house an organ shutter with the subject of the Annunciation, now
attributed to Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1500, Venice, Gallerie dellAccademia). The Annunciation
scene is set in a corner where the walls are covered with colourful painted marble slabs:
[a] similar sensitivity to the glowing polychromy of the marbles had been
displayed in the original organ shutters, now in the Accademia where the
Annunciation scene is set in a marbled interior decorated with polychrome
panels like those of the church itself. (Howard 691)
The second Venetian example is definitely by Giovanni Bellini, his well-known San Giobbe
Altarpiece (ca. 1487, Venice, Gallerie dellAccademia). Although it depicts a Sacra
Conversazione, not an Annunciation, it is still the best example of how the real architecture of
the church and the fictive architecture of the scenery could be made to interact in the late
fifteenth-century Venetian tradition. The architectural setting of the altarpiece consists of a
coffered vault supported by richly decorated allantica columns. They serve a very similar
role to the inner frame of Crivellis painting, that of imitating decorated carved stone work.
The painted architecture of the San Giobbe Altarpiece is contemporary to such an extent that
it elongates and frames the real architecture of the church wall. At the same time, it opens up
the wall to an imaginary scene of the Enthroned Virgin flanked by saints who were especially
venerated in the church.
Anachronistic settings do not limit themselves to Annunciation scenes. More explicit
landmarks than in Crivellis altarpiece can be seen in the fresco cycle depicting episodes from
the life of Saint Francis painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel (1483-86,
Florence, Santa Trinita). The episode of the Resuscitation of the Notarys Son:
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. . . occurred near the Piazza San Marco in Rome, whereas in the painting the
background is Florence. The view shows specifically the piazza outside the
Church of Santa Trinita. This transfer of locale, moreover, is matched in the
scene directly above, where the Confirmation of the Rule, which took place
before the pope in Rome, is represented in the fresco as happening in Florence,
near the Piazza della Signoria. In fact, these localized settings develop the
cityscape conceits in the altarpiece below and are the final link in defining the
secondary axis in the chapels overall organization. (Lavin 205)
Following the relocation, the new setting is contemporary urban Florence. For example, the
triple arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi appear in the background of the Confirmation scene,
though it had not yet been built when the confirmation of the Franciscan order was bestowed
by Pope Honorius III in 1223. A double consideration lies behind the choice of the new
location: it has an allusion both to the power of Florence as the new Rome and to the
chronicle of the Sassetti family. As is clear from these examples, relocated events and new
contemporary urban settings appear frequently in quattrocento Italian painting.
The last category in the inventory listing painterly anachronisms, the depiction of
contemporary figures in the guise of another, seems to be the least frequent case of all. In this
period the anotherfigure, who is replaced by a contemporary person, is usually a biblical
one. There are different views as to who exactly is portrayed in the figures of the kings and
their entourage in Benozzo Gozzolis Procession of the Magi fresco at the Medici Chapel in
Florence (1459, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi), however, many scholars agree that there are
allusions to contemporary figures and events (Crum 403, especially footnote 1). The
procession probably commemorates the 1439 event of the Council of Florence with the
portraits of the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Paleologus and the Eastern Patriarch Joseph II.
According to another view the patrons, the members of the Medici family, are portrayed
among the protagonists. The cycle clearly operates with iconographic flexibility, as Roger J
Crum suggests (416), and in this way bears double historicity.
Several similar examples could be adduced, where the depicted characters or settings
share the that time beholders space and time. The late fifteenth-century examples given
here, which, as in Crivellis altarpiece, use Renaissance architecture, ornaments or characters,
actually mark the summit of a long and consistent tradition. This tradition would be seriously
modified by the Counter Reformation, when for the first time the Church urged painters to be
more historically accurate when representing religious subjects.
The concept of narrative ramification
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 13

It is time to address the question of how these anachronisms affect our understanding
of Crivellis work. What story is it that is being told in the Ascoli altarpiece? How is the
Annunciation re-narrated here and how is this visual tale constructed by pictorial means?
In the Ascoli Annunciation, by his inclusion of certain episodes and several
anachronistic details, Crivelli makes clear that the correspondence between the verbal tale and
its visual representation is not obvious. Instead, a new visual tale is invented, distinct from the
textual narrative. Crivellis Annunciation belongs not only to biblical Nazareth but, due to the
architecture it encloses, the costumes, the coats of arms, the view of the street and the eye-
witnessing citizens of the town, it also belongs to Renaissance Ascoli. A multiple temporality
is achieved by applying anachronistic features. The re-narrated story depicted is about the
delivery of a message and what preceded it. However, the content of the message is not the
arrival of the Redeemer as told in the Bible, but rather the arrival of a privilege, Libertas
Ecclesiastica, with crucial importance for the history of Ascoli. In this new story the main
role is played not by Gabriel or Mary, but by St Emidius, who interrupts Gabriel to intercede
with Mary. The character of St Emidius thus turns the well-known plot of the Annunciation in
a completely different direction. An intervention takes place in the original storyline. A new
character, not recorded in any of the previous visual or written versions of the event, steps into
the scene and affects the course of events in a radical way. St Emidius stands for an intrusion:
the universal course of Redemption is interrupted and the chain of events is distracted by local
historical and political interest. This intrusion indicates the moment when the original story
arrives at a crossroad. A certain interference or ramification happens here. Before the
intrusion, the Annunciation followed the Biblical storyline with Gabriel and the Virgin, but
the appearance of Emidius conjoins the Biblical and the contemporary. With his presence, the
viewers attention is diverted away from the religious content and is led into Ascolis history.
Let us call this phenomenon narrative ramification.
In general, narrative ramification can be defined as a radical step taken by a character
in the story to change the course of events. This intervention results in the revision of the
storyline, often there is a change in the ending of the tale, an altered conclusion. Transmedial
representations of a story easily turn into ramifications, for example, when transforming a
visual tale into verbal, or the other way round. These ramifications are intentional and
purposeful, and have nothing to do with the possible limitations of any of the media involved.
The reason Crivellis storytelling deserves more attention is that his character, St Emidius, the
new protagonist, is not only present, but he also intervenes. From a narratological point of
view, this makes for a very rich and very unusual tale. Interventions, especially radical
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 14

interventions into the biblical narratives are rare. Art, it seems, had to reach the post-religious
era of the twentieth century to be permitted the slightly impudent lightness in the treatment of
religious narratives, evident, for example, in Max Ernsts deliberately scandalous painting,
The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus Before Three Witnesses: A.B., P.E, and the
Artist (1926, Cologne, Ludwig Museum).
The story of the Ascoli Annunciation
In Crivellis actualisation, there is one episode which carries special significance. This
is the episode with Antonio Benincasa at the top of the arch, where he receives the papal
letter. The main motif of the picture, the delivering of the message by Gabriel to the Virgin, is
repeated as a mise-en-abyme motif just above the main episode. It is a repeated thematic unit,
a microscene, and it revises the act of delivering, receiving and accepting the message, but
now in a smaller scale. From the notarys costume, it is clear that he is an important and
dignified person in the history of the town, as is the Virgin in the biblical story (Lightbown
342). Benincasa has just been interrupted by the young papal messenger, just as the Virgin is
interrupted by the salutation of Gabriel. The term mise-en-abyme is used for a motif in a
narrative which is referring to any part of a work that resembles the larger work in which it
occurs (Nelles 312-313). The term was coined by the writer Andr Gide in 1893, and in its
original sense it described the visual effect of a formal repetition, such as that used in
heraldry, where an enclosing major form contains the same form but on a smaller scale. In
painting, the mise-en-abyme motif is primarily identified as mirror reflections, for example, in
Van Eycks Arnolfini double portrait.
This episodic mise-en-abyme motif is applied by Crivelli as a device of narrative
expansion. Through ramification it opens a new storyline. The accidental historical
coincidence that brought Sixtus IVs letter to Ascoli on 25 March, exactly on the feast of the
Annunciation, appears visually as a response in a cause and effect sequence, where the cause
is the intercession of the figure of St Emidius. This is strengthened both by compositional and
thematic means: the consequence is carefully positioned in the pictorial space, it appears on
the vertical axis, just above the cause, the scene with Gabriel and Emidius. The fine linear
perspective constructed by Crivelli is subordinated to this narrative unit: the vanishing point is
placed exactly on the same axis. The intercession and its consequence, the arrival of the papal
message, is not the only thing threaded on this vertical line. There, one also finds the golden
whirl of clouds and cherubim indicating the divine presence. Any visually acute viewer,
whether of the present or of the fifteenth century, should be able to link the two episodes
conjoined by the composition with the third, the highest power. Thus we are to understand a
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 15

visual suggestion, namely that the cause and its consequence, the intercession of St Emidius in
the lower zone and the symbolic act of obtaining the grant in the upper, both have divine
mandate. This corresponds with Ron Moshes point on this particular narrative device: Mise
en abyme is also a rebellion against scale in the quantitative sense. It is a small part carrying
as much significance as the whole that contains it. (Moshe 430)
All the episodes and elements studied here Emidiuss intercession, the updated
environment, the extradiegetic elements of the painting suggest that the visual story is a
radical reinterpretation of the biblical Annunciation. Crivellis version celebrates the freedom
of the city, which is seen as the fulfilment of the Annunciation, and thus it represents civic
ambition. In its time, it was a large and expensive altarpiece, accessible to the general public.
It most likely played a role in contemporary liturgical activity. So, with this altarpiece the
citizens of Ascoli could actively experience not only the religious narrative, but, with the help
of the anachronistic details, they were offered an historicised, retold story of the
Annunciation.
Anachronism as a narrative device
The relationship of time and narration has been addressed in many forms in the
domain of the visual: as the idea of punctum temporis, as moments in episodic narration, as
the time of perception and contemplation. Pictorial anachronisms have never previously been
studied in a narrative context. As I argue, pictorial anachronisms, at least as they were
rendered in late quattrocento Italy, would contribute profoundly to the narrative effect of
paintings. This was a strategy that enabled painters, patrons and spectators to make religious
narratives seem actual, efficient and present. Anachronism, as it is seen in Crivellis
altarpiece, promotes present time perception and encourages believers to see biblical stories
not primarily as ancient historical events but stories that are related to their personal history or
personal faith. It is a device for re-narrating, reinterpreting, and further, historicising the
religious narrative.
The greatest achievement of Crivellis altarpiece is the ramification, the shift from
religious to historical narratives. Jrg Rsen specified three qualities that characterise
historical narratives. An historical narrative operates with memory, it mobilizes the
experience of past time; then it serves to establish the identity of its authors and listeners;
and finally establishes continuity between the past, present and future, in order to make the
present understandable and the future imaginable (Rsen 89). In spite of being primarily a
religious object, commissioned for a local church by the community of Ascoli, each of
Rsens three qualities is valid for Crivellis Annunciation.
Image & Narrative, Vol 12, No 4 (2011) 16

Anachronism is a device to achieve temporally complex painterly structures. It covers
the use of different signs to evoke another temporal realm, different from the main reality of
the artwork. As the Barneses note:
chronological inaccuracies could be used for some artistic purposes. If this
purpose is clear, the obvious anachronism can be non-vicious. In some cases
they might be virtuous. If the artist was primarily interested in painting a visually
rich, structurally complex work, then the presence of obvious anachronisms
might not be vicious. (Barnes and Barnes 259)
In the realm of visual storytelling it is better characterised as an elegant painterly device to
compress and overlap different periods, eras, or styles. Crivellis rendering of the biblical
story showed how pictorial time is able to relate the sacred and the dramatic time, an effective
narrative strategy still used in contemporary arts. It is certainly clear that visual narratives set
up a different experience of time from that of written narratives. Verbal narratives are better at
separating temporal layers. Images, as the phenomenon of anachronism shows, are better at
fusing different moments or temporal layers (they can work simultaneously, proleptically or
analeptically). In some periods, warnings against such practices were formulated within art
theory and this, in itself, is evidence of widespread application. It must be concluded that
images are able to span not only short intervals but long periods of time and that they can also
fuse different locations.


Works Cited
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Manfred Jahn and Marie-Laure Ryan. London and New York: Routledge, 2005. 236-37.
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Anachronism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47.3 (Summer, 1989): 253-61.
Print.
Crum, Roger J. Roberto Martelli, the Council of Florence, and the Medici Palace Chapel.
Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte 59.3 (1996): 403-17. Print.
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Gombrich, Ernst H. The Sassetti Chapel Revisited: Santa Trinita and Lorenzo deMedici.
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Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg. The Place of Narrative. Mural Decoration in Italian Churches,
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Tolley, Thomas. Crivelli. Grove Art Online. Web. 11 June 2010.


Dr. Gyngyvr Horvth obtained her PhD from the University of East Anglia, School of
World Art Studies and Museology, Norwich. Her research is concerned with the theory and
historiography of visual narratives. After working as an Assistant Curator of contemporary art
for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, recently Horvth joined the Theory Institute of
the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, as an Assistant Professor.
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