The Meeting of Joachim and Anne outside the Golden Gate of Jerusalem

The Meeting of Joachim and Anne outside the Golden Gate of Jerusalem (1497), at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, depicts the apocryphal scene from the Protoevangelium of James in which Mary's parents meet at the gate of Jerusalem after an angelic vision promises them a child — the future Virgin Mary. This moment was treated as a prefiguration of the Immaculate Conception, a doctrine of increasing importance in the late fifteenth century. Lippi's treatment, painted near the end of his career, reflects his ability to invest an obscure apocryphal narrative with emotional and theological weight.

The architectural setting of the gate provides a formal arch through which the meeting figures emerge — a visual device that frames the sacred encounter within the geometry of Jerusalem's sacred geography. Lippi's figures at this date are slightly more elongated and dramatically gestural than in his earlier work, anticipating Mannerist tendencies.