ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for an iconography of narrative in gesture, space, and time. These visual signs of narrativity initiate and guide their viewers through the transformative experience of medieval narrative. Narrative emerges in art history as a structural category of imagery with specific modes. Gesture is the initiation of visual narrative. It is a call to narrative action, a signal to the viewer for attentiveness. The chapter examines gestures of two of the most pervasive narratives in medieval imagery, one sacred, the other secular: the moment of contact of the Annunciation and the beginning of the Roman de la Rose. The Annunciation is the initiation of Christ’s conversation with humanity. Its signaling by hand gestures, which are present in every Annunciation, creates an iconography of narrative initiation. The scale of the narrative initiated by the Annunciation gesture also varies according to the attentiveness of the audience.
