>You're surrounded by illustrative objects none of which suggest a
>story *unless you already know the story they're meant to illustrate*.
They were also meant to help people learn the story. They were not only illustrative but also didactic.
>Behind it, in front of it, to its left, to its right, above it, below
>it--but *not* *in* it.
Again, they were partly teaching tools, so yes, the story was in them. In fact it still is for those with a discerning eye. And not only the story being illustrated, but much else besides about the world the picture was produced in.
There's a great little book that really brings this alive. It's by Michael Baxandall:
Serving as both an introduction to fifteenth-century Italian painting and as a text on how to interpret social history from the style of pictures in a given historical period, this new edition to Baxandall's pre-eminent scholarly volume examines early Renaissance painting, and explains how the style of painting in any society reflects the visual skills and habits that evolve out of daily life. Renaissance painting, for example, mirrors the experience of such activities as preaching, dancing, and gauging barrels. The volume includes discussions of a wide variety of painters, including Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Masaccio, Luca Signorelli, Boccaccio, and countless others. Baxandall also defines and illustrates sixteen concepts used by a contemporary critic of painting, thereby assembling the basic equipment needed to explore fifteenth-century art.
This new second edition includes an appendix that lists the original Latin and Italian texts referred to throughout the book, providing the reader with all the relevant, authentic sources. It also contains an updated bibliography and a new reproduction of a recently restored painting which replaces the original.