The Life of the Virgin III; The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate by Albrecht Dürer

Art work details

Year of production :

1504

Artist:

Albrecht Dürer

Medium :

Woodcut

Materials:

Paper, Ink (printing)

Dimensions :

height: 29.7 cms; width: 20.4 cms

Credit Line :

Bequest of Louisa Dudgeon

Tags:

Religion, Woodcut, Durer

Husband and wife Joachim and Anne are shown embracing at the Golden Gate after both receiving the same promise that a child will be born to them. Their embrace possesses a restrained beauty, observed by a small group slightly smaller in scale. Dürer frames the work with an archway, complete with an intricate tracery of vines, figures and animal forms.

Dürer executed The Life of the Virgin over several years, but initially seems not to have conceived of it as a group. It was probably only after creating a few of the images that he thought of publishing the whole series, comprising 19 plates with the title frontispiece.

The series places the Virgin in settings both earthly and divine, revealing her holy status marked by God, as well as her human qualities and frailties. All the images demonstrate superb cutting and mastery of line and are set within Dürer’s distinctly northern landscape.