Carved and possibly originally polychromed. The reverse is flat and contains a (modern?) hook.

Worm-eaten; crumbling parts, particularly on the base. The fold of drapery extending from Joachim’s left shoulder to the base has been renewed.

…; bequeathed by Jonkheer J.H.E.F. de Stuers (1876-1907), The Hague, to the museum, 1907

Object number: BK-NM-11964

Credit line: Jonkheer J.H.E.F. de Stuers Bequest, Amsterdam

The story of Joachim and Anne was first recounted in the sixth-century apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary. After its inclusion in the thirteenth century in the famous Golden Legend, episodes from their life – including their meeting at the Golden Gate portrayed here, which marks the moment of Anne’s immaculate conception of Mary – became increasingly prevalent as subject matter in the visual arts (see also BK-NM-88). In sculpture, Anne’s likeness, in particular, was popular as part of a St Anne Trinity, since it portrayed her key role as progenitrix in the worship of the virgin mother.¹¹T. Brandenburg et al., Heilige Anna, grote moeder. De cultus van de Heilige Moeder Anna en haar familie in de Nederlanden en aangrenzende streken, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1992, pp. 30-31.

This heavily damaged group stems from the period when the cult of St Anne was at its height: the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century. Its flat back and left side suggest that in all likelihood the group was originally installed in a cabinet or on a retable shelf. In the latter case, the sculpture would have belonged to a series of groups portraying scenes from the life of Anne or Mary. The Golden Gate, carved from another block of wood, would then have been positioned in the background.

Stylistically, the work is in keeping with the sculpture of the region of Cleves-Guelders, in which we frequently see the unsettled draperies, thin heads with sunken eyes, and Joachim’s hair style and beard type, as well as the motif of the folded-back drapery, seen here on his shoulder. A comparable piece from the region is a St John the Baptist in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht.²²Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh387, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 319. The same museum owns a statue of a pope – from the Sint-Martinuskerk in Oud-Zevenaar (Guelders) – whose facial features are remarkably similar to Anne’s.³³Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh336, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 322.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 78, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Meeting of Joachim and Anne, Cleves-Guelders, c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035570