Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This work depicts Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, and is likely a fragment from an altarpiece dedicated to the life of the Virgin. While Joachim was fasting in the wilderness, an angel appeared to tell him that he and Anne, who had previously been unable to bear children, would have a child. He returned and met Anne at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, a scene that is often used an illustration of the Immaculate Conception, in which Mary was conceived without sin.

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