Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem

religious

Two different episodes from the life of Mary's parents are illustrated in this painting. In the foreground we find the encounter of the life-sized figures, the smaller size figures in the background illustrate the angel's annunciation that Joachim is about to become a father. The painting is one of the rare examples of compositions with life-sized figures by the artist, known chiefly for small and medium-sized formats throughout his career.

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Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem

About the Artist

Bernardo Cavallino

1616 – 1656

Neapolitan painter. He was the most individual and sensitive Neapolitan painter of his time, but his career is somewhat obscure. About eighty paintings by him are extant, but only one is dated, St Cecilia in Ecstasy (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1645; a modello is in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). Most of his pictures are small-scale religious works, peopled by exquisitely elegant and refined figures who evoke a feeling of tender melancholy. Their fragile sensitivity is in complete contrast to the earthy vigour of much of Neapolitan painting of his period. Cavallino trained with Massimo Stanzione, but his style has more in common with that of Van Dyck, whose work was fairly well known in Naples. He is presumed to have died in the plague that devastated Naples in 1656.

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