Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple
Andrea di Bartolo·c. 1400/1405
Historical Context
Andrea di Bartolo's depiction of Joachim and Anna giving food to the poor and offerings to the Temple illustrates the charitable acts of the Virgin's parents as recounted in the Protoevangelium of James. This panel likely formed part of a cycle of the Life of the Virgin that included the Nativity and Presentation scenes. The emphasis on charity reflected the devotional practices of the confraternities and religious orders who commissioned such cycles.
Technical Analysis
The tempera on poplar panel demonstrates Andrea di Bartolo's careful narrative composition with figures arranged in a clear, legible sequence. The gold ground and decorative details maintain the luxurious quality of Sienese panel painting while the spatial arrangement shows growing awareness of perspectival depth.
Provenance
This panel, along with NGA 1939.1.41 and 1939.1.42, are stated to have come from the collection of a contessa Giustiniani, Genoa;[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome); sold July 1930 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] See the bill of sale described in note 2. No documented collection of the conti Giustiniani at Genoa seems to have existed, at least in the early years of the twentieth century. The works that Elisabeth Gardner (_ A Bibliographical Repertory of Italian Private Collections_, ed. Chiara Ceschi and Katharine Baetjer, 4 vols., Vicenza, 1998-2011: 2(2002):183) cites as formerly the property of the contessa Giustiniani almost all seem to have been purchased on the art market shortly before 1930, when Contini Bonacossi sold them to Samuel H. Kress. The contessa is thus more likely to have been a dealer, or agent, than a collector. See also Miklós Boskovits and David Alan Brown, _Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century_, National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington and New York, 2003: 616 n. 3. [2] The painting is included on a bill of sale dated 15 July 1930 that included eight paintings from the Giustiniani collection (copy in NGA curatorial files); see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1157.
