Dalmatian/Venetian, 'Saint Joachim's Offering; Meeting at the Golden Gate', about 1400
About the work
Overview
The scenes on this panel describe the conception of the Virgin Mary by her mother Anne. In the upper scene Anne’s husband Joachim attempts to make an offering of a lamb at the temple but is turned away before he reaches the altar by two bearded priests. According to the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century compilation of the lives of the saints, he was unwelcome because of his childlessness. The next scene appears on a different panel, The Angel appearing to Saint Joachim and (below) The Birth of the Virgin.
The lower image here continues the story at a later stage. It shows Joachim and Anne kissing in front of the Golden Gate at the entrance to Jerusalem. The city is shown as a fortified and walled jumble of pitched roofs and domes, set in a hilly landscape: the artist’s vision of the rocky scenery of the Middle East. This was, according to the legend, the moment Anne conceived Mary.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Saint Joachim's Offering rejected and (below) The Meeting at the Golden Gate
- Artist
- Dalmatian/Venetian
- Part of the group
- Altarpiece of the Virgin Mary
- Date made
- about 1400
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 63.4 × 26.8 cm
- Inscription summary
- Inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by H.E. Luxmoore, 1927
- Inventory number
- NG4250.2
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
1988Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised edn, London 1988
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2011Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
About the group: Altarpiece of the Virgin Mary

Overview
This altarpiece is a unique example in the National Gallery’s collection of a work made by a late medieval artist working on both sides of the Adriatic, the sea between Italy and the Balkan coast. The picture may be one of the earliest painted representations of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (the Virgin being conceived without sin). This was a controversial idea in this period. It was not officially included in Catholic theology until the nineteenth century, but it was celebrated in the fifteenth century, on 8 December.
The central panel showing the Virgin and Child includes celestial bodies – the sun, moon and stars – that became associated with the Immaculate Conception. The left side panels show the story of the Virgin’s miraculous birth to a couple who could not have children; the right side panels shows two miracles of the Virgin.