Carlo Crivelli was was born in the earlier part of the 15th century. The only dates that can with certainty be given are 1468 and 1493; these are respectively the earliest and the latest years signed on his pictures-the former on an altar-piece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa near Fermo, and the latter on a picture in the Oggioni collection in Milan. Though born in Venice, Crivelli seems to have worked chiefly in the March of Ancona, and especially in and near Ascoli
Carlo Crivelli was is said to have studied under Jacobello del Fiore, who was painting as late at any rate as 1436; at that time Crivelli was probably only a boy.
Carlo completed his earliest dated extant work, a polyptych for the church of San Silvestro at Massa Fermana, in 1468.
He was a resident of Ascoli Piceno when knighted by Prince Ferdinand of Capua in 1490, probably for political sympathies rather than artistic achievements. Like his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini, Crivelli was strongly influenced by the Paduan school, dominated by Francesco Squarcione and Andrea Mantegna, and by a number of artists, such as Rogier van der Weyden, Gentile da Fabriano, and Antonello da Messina, who had traveled through the north of Italy. Obvious stylistic differences between the works of Bellini and Crivelli probably resulted through Crivelli's closer contact with Bartolomeo Vivarini. Like Vivarini, Crivelli accentuated decorative effects and a sharp linearity. His use of illusionistic details, or trompe l'oeil, also suggests Vivarini's influence. Both artists used trompe l'oeil in a paradoxical way to assert the materiality of their works--the noticeable intrusion of the painter's craft contradicting the representational integrity of the scene as a whole. Crivelli exploited the conflict to communicate profound aesthetic and theological truths. This is seen most clearly in his Vision of the Blessed Gabriel (late 1480's). We see a Franciscan monk kneeling in a naturalistic landscape confronted by a vision of the Madonna and Child. While aerial perspective and strong receding lines create a pictorial space behind the picture plane, the mandorla containing the Madonna and Child appears to be in front of the picture plane; so too does the swag of fruit that hangs from the top of the picture. The swag of fruit is a common trompe l'oeil device found in northern Italian paintings of the late 15th century. Most uncommon, and unprecedented, however, are shadows thrown by the swag painted by the artist, supposedly onto the sky in the landscape. But in effect, the shadows are thrown onto the picture plane - that is, not onto the sky but onto the painted surface that represents the sky. The trompe l'oeil reveals the painting as the painting that it is. Crivelli thus separates the art object from its subject and reinforces the differences between the various levels of reality that, as a religious artist, he is concerned with. The painting of Gabriel's vision is made as tangible as the landscape in which the vision occurred. The vision is not to be confused with the landscape, just as the landscape is not identical with the vision. By asserting the materiality of the art object, the reality of the picture plane, Crivelli refers to three "visions" in The Vision of the Blessed Gabriel - a heavenly vision, a view of the landscape, and the painted illusion that represents them. The difference between an immediate terrestrial reality and a promised spiritual reality accounts for certain deliberate incongruities in Crivelli's paintings. This is most obvious in scenes that represent collisions between these realities, namely the Annunciation and the Crucifixion. The Annunciation with Saint Emidius (1486; National Gallery, London) and the Crucifixion (c. 1490, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) both involve an illusionism that defeats itself. Their otherwise cohesive pictorial space, achieved through single-point perspective, is fractured in order to eliminate any confusion of these paintings simply with what they represent. In the Crucifixion, the figure of Christ is accompanied by Mary Magdalene and Saint John. The background is bisected by a sharp straight line, below which there is a naturalistic landscape with a sunset sky. Above there is a flat area of gold, which, like the ray of gold in the Annunciation, bears no relation to the pictorial space created by the rest of the painting. It is purely symbolic, representing the Kingdom of Heaven. Altering our perception of the painted figures and the landscape they inhabit, it stresses the illusionism of the pictorial space - and, in the case of Christ, completely distorts any sense of His place within it. His image is simultaneously behind the picture plane and in front of the aperspectival area of gold, caught between two modes of representation. The significance of Christ for Crivelli - as man and God, inhabiting two worlds - is palpably communicated by stylistic incongruity.
Crivelli combined in his work the main features of the late Gothic and the achievements of Renaissance painting. Possessed a masterful perspective. Possessed an inexhaustible imagination. Was a great colorist — bright colors of his paintings are perfectly balanced and do not produce the impression of variegation. His work is full of symbols, which are not always decipherable.
