Detail of 'The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate' by Fra Filippo Lippi (c.1406-1469)
This small rectangular panel almost certainly originated as part of the bottom panel (predella) for a larger altarpiece. Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar and compatriot of Masaccio and Fra Angelico, spent much of his artistic career working for church patrons in central Italy. As seen in this charming panel, his storytelling talent won renown also in great fresco cycles as well as majestic altarpieces. In this scene, The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate, Anna and Joachim inhabit a world that comes alive with delicately observed detail. Rush mats, sparkling streams, and placid wading birds gradually lead our eye through a serene landscape. The story which celebrates the moment of Mary’s immaculate conception derives from apocryphal legends. Anna and Joachim, a somewhat older couple, have longed for a child. Despite their years of prayers and faithful service in their community the longed-for pregnancy has not occurred. Yet, as often happens in the scriptures, a couple well past child-bearing age learn that God will bless them with a child. Heavenly messengers tell the parents to go to the Golden Gate at Jerusalem. The moment the two parents-to-be see each other there, they rush to embrace. Their joyful physical union signals symbolically the moment of Mary’s conception. The shimmering colours of the ecstatic couple’s clothing evokes for us a decisive change both in their status and ours. As their maturity comes alive with hope beyond any possible imagining, we too identify with the new beginning that this story announces.
Art Guide Resource
The 2014 Art Guide has been compiled by Claire Renkin, well-known art historian and lecturer at Yarra Theological Union and has been recorded by Dr. Rachael Kohn, author and public speaker, most well known for her ABC Radio National program, 'The Spirit of Things'. Music by Chris Zabriskie (chriszabriskie.com). Artworks © Bridgeman Images.
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