The Origins of a Miraculous Image: Notes on the Annunciation Fresco in SS. Annunziata in Florence

Abstract

I N C O N N E C T I O N W I T H the recent interest in the early modern cult image within the discipline of art history there have been considerable debates and confusion on how to treat the image, which was, or still is, honored as miraculous. Several cult images that have captured the interest of art historians because they were venerated during the Renaissance are still the subject of religious devotion today. The fact that the images have not been made accessible for the art viewer but remain closed off by a wall of devotional tokens within its traditional ecclesiastic context has often been treated as a problem by art historians who seek to grasp the underlying meaning of these images as cult images. The special attentiveness of art historians to the dating and attribution of their objects of research has further complicated the situation. In the case of the cult images that are still venerated it is often impossible to inspect them closely and, in the end, these examinations would seldom offer any information on the cult image as such. One of the main reasons for this is that the prevalent conception of origin within the historical devotional contexts of the cult images was completely different from our idea of the origin of an artifact today. In the present article, I will propose an alternative approach to the study of early modern cult images, in particular regarding concepts such as origin and authenticity, which will be treated as fundamental for an understanding of the significance of these images as well as the underlying pictorial conception of their beholders in the Renaissance. This article is therefore about the cult image in the »Era of Art«, to quote Hans Belting, when devotional practices as well as pictorial practices were undergoing change. The article focuses in particular on the Annunciation fresco in the Servite church, SS. Annunziata, in Florence. This was a miraculous image that enjoyed great popularity between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and, to a certain extent, still does today. The fresco and its cult have received some attention from art historians during the last decade, and many aspects of the cult and its significance in Florentine society have come to light. However, interest in the image has mainly concerned its origin and the early development of the cult, and attempts to identify its painter and the moment of its production have been made without consideration of the beliefs reflected in the legends of those who venerated the fresco. Here I propose that the actual production of the image was treated as accidental within its