EKPHRASIS, LORENZO LOTTO'S ANNUNCIATION, AND THE HERMENEUTICS OF SUSPICION

Lorenzo Lotto's Recanati Annunciation develops the second of the traditional pericopes in St. Luke's narrative of the Annunciation, presenting to the spectator the Virgin's startled reaction to the arrival of the angel Gabriel and suggesting that we might employ a hermeneutics of suspicion in reading the Gospel text. Recent literary responses to Lotto's painting and to the Lukan text engage in a similar hermeneutics to offer an understanding of personal and cultural responses to the Annunciation narrative and to present at times a counter-narrative.