This thesis is concerned with three problems regarding the cult of the Annunciation fresco in SS. Annunziata in Florence, and the pictorial understanding of its beholders in the early modern period. The first problem is how to approach the Annunziata fresco with particular focus on its function as a miracle-working image in the early modern period; an epoch that has traditionally been characterized by innovation in the arts and the rationality of its beholders. The second concerns the origins of the cult image,and how the date and authorship of the image is comprehended differently within two contrasting pictorial understandings, founded on conflicting concepts of temporality, originality and the authenticity of images. The third problem relates to the notion of “Renaissance” within the discipline of art history, which has tended to have a one-sided view regarding the pictorial understanding of the period, thus, excluding a particular group of powerful images in the period; that of the cult image. In chapter 1 the perspectives and problems discussed in the present study are presented together with a survey of the research history on the Annunziata fresco, and the early modern cult image in general. The chapter also includes a discussion on theory and method, and a definition of some particular terms that are used throughout the thesis.
Chapter 2 offers a description of the Annunciation fresco in SS. Annunziata and its physical context, surrounded by tokens of devotion within the church. The chapter also includes a brief introduction to the Order of the Servites, the legends of the Annunziata fresco, and the various attempts to date, attribute, and define the fresco within different discourses.
Chapter 3 explores the historical framework of the cult image, in which the origins and development of the holy image, its myths, legends, and surrounding cult practices are presented.
Chapter 4 focuses on the early modern cult image in central Italy, and the image in SS. Annunziata in particular. Here the miraculous images in Florence and the broader region are presented together with a thorough discussion on the cult of the Annunziata fresco. This chapter also discusses in detail the many aspects of the pictorial understanding in this period.
Chapter 5 considers the cult image in relation to the art historical notion of the “Renaissance”, together with the transformations in the cult of the Annunziata, the pictorial understanding of its beholders, and the general position of the cult image in the early modern period and the “Renaissance”.