Virgin and Child, The Annunciation to Joachim, and The Meeting at the Golden Gate by Macrino d'Alba

Virgin and Child, The Annunciation to Joachim, and The Meeting at the Golden Gate c. 1493 - 1494

tempera, painting

woman

tempera

painting

landscape

11_renaissance

traditional architecture

child

12_15th-century

history-painting

italian-renaissance

early-renaissance

angel

This triptych altarpiece, "Virgin and Child, The Annunciation to Joachim, and The Meeting at the Golden Gate," by Italian Renaissance painter Macrino d'Alba (c. 1465/1470 - d. unknown), is a significant example of the Umbrian school of painting. The central panel showcases the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, while the side panels depict the Annunciation to Joachim, the father of Mary, and the Meeting of Joachim and Anna, Mary's parents, at the Golden Gate. The painting’s rich colours and detailed figures illustrate d'Alba’s masterful use of perspective and light. This piece was created for a church altar and is currently housed in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

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stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

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Early Italian altarpieces had consisted of a large number of individual, rigidly joined panels. Each normally depicting only a single saint, they were arranged according to the relative status of those subjects. Only in the second half of the fifteenth century did the separately framed panels come to be linked by a depiction of the ground or background continuing from one to the next. Macrino d’Alba’s tripartite retable – featuring the enthroned Virgin with a scene from the story of Joachim and Anna on either side – adheres to this more modern scheme.