ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that certain repeated themes in Western art can be read psychoanalytically without necessarily having recourse to the artist's biography. The most pervasive and canonical primal-scene image in Christian art is the Annunciation. It depicts Gabriel's announcement of Christ's birth to Mary, and typically refers to impregnation. The implication of Mantegna's iconography, that Samson has fallen asleep in a drunken stupor, transforms the grape into Samson's "forbidden fruit." Certain standard iconographic features of the Annunciation, such as the opened and closed door, denote Mary's receptivity and virginity, respectively. In psychoanalysis, the primal scene refers to the child's fantasy of sex between the parents—whether or not the child has actually witnessed it. The Christian mystery of Incarnation is thereby "witnessed" by whoever looks at the picture, although some versions of primal-scene iconography include a viewer as part of the image.