Annunciation with Saint Emidius

A saint carrying a city

Emidius is identified by a model of a town held in his hands. The convention belongs to a whole class of patron saints, who are shown carrying miniature versions of the places under their protection — walls, towers and roofs reduced to something a figure can hold. Emidius is the patron of Ascoli Piceno, and the title recorded here names him as a presence added to a subject that does not otherwise require him: an Annunciation, to which a local patron has been attached.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the panel to 1486 and gives the National Gallery in London as its location. Its dimensions are 146.7 x 207 cm, wider than tall and large. The categories are unusually broad: Religion, religious and mythological cultural heritage, Fantasy, and — notably — Architectural. The style is Early Renaissance and the nationality Italian; the measured colour families are ochre and yellow.

Why Architectural is filed against it

That category is doing real work. An Annunciation with a city patron in it is a picture with two kinds of building: the perspective architecture the scene is staged in, and the small carried town that identifies the saint. One is space and one is an attribute. The record indexes both under the same heading, which is a fair reading of a picture where architecture is subject matter rather than backdrop.