Carlo Crivelli’s The Annunciation, with St Emidius is like a medieval tapestry, rich with colour and movement; laden with both symbolism and historical specificity. Commissioned for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Ascoli Piceno, it celebrates the partial grant of self-government to the city by Pope Sixtus IV in 1486. The news arrived on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, a theme which Crivelli adapts so as also to honour the town’s patron saint, Emidius.

At the left of the scene, members of the Observant Friars, commissioners of the painting, are informed of the grant. But only the small child witnesses the angel Gabriel, white lily of the Annunciation in hand, whose progress has been halted by St Emidius, holding a model of Ascoli. The angel’s fantastical costume has still not settled after his descent, but neither seems aware of the rush of air that, having whipped the trees in the enclosed garden at the rear of the composition, has passed overhead. The Dove of the Holy Spirit flies onward, carrying word to the Virgin.

On one level, the painting is a paean to the bodily senses—sound, smell, touch, and taste—but each of these is also the bearer of spiritual meaning. Mary is kneeling at her prayer stool in the doorway, its scarlet and gold curtain drawn back to reveal a richly decorated patrician interior rather than a humble abode. On a high shelf, precious containers symbolize aspects of Christian teaching: books (the Word); a gold candlestick; and an alabastron or ointment jar. Gold, the most precious metal on earth, reflector of light and therefore knowledge, was gifted to the infant Christ by the wise men, along with frankincense and myrrh.

The dizzying array of objects constantly draw the eye backwards and forwards in Crivelli’s painting, but there is one item, balanced almost casually, that may relate to the lyrical final line on the Song of Solomon. On the shelf above Mary, a translucent glass vessel stands, the light passing through it illuminating the grain of wood covering the wall. It represents the purity of the Virgin Mary, before, during, and after birth, for ‘You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you’ (Song 4:7).