The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate
Brussels, Belgium, about 1500
Wood (oak)
55.9 x 40.3 cm
The subject of the Meeting of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary, comes from The Golden Legend (CXXIX). Their gestures of greeting are an unusual way of representing the subject for the date, and may reflect an earlier prototype. The carving is also unusually large and was perhaps a specific commission. It once belonged to the son of John Hardman junior (1811-1867), of Birmingham, who made ecclesiastical objects for the Gothic Revival designer and architect AWN Pugin (1812-1852). Conceivably the carving was supplied by Pugin as a workshop model.
Purchased 1940 (No. 40.10)
