Joachim and Anne choosing a Lamb for Sacrifice

Most cycles of the Virgin's life skip straight to her famous parents at the Golden Gate. Fries pauses on a rarer, humbler moment first. Turned away from the Temple because he had no children, Joachim withdrew to his flocks among the shepherds, and here he and Anne pick out a lamb to offer in sacrifice. It let Fries paint what he saw around him every day: the work of herding, the animals, the plain clothes of country people, set into a sacred story. This panel was one scene on a large folding altarpiece he completed in 1512 on the early life of Mary. The altar was later taken apart, and its scenes are now divided between Basel and museums in Nuremberg and Hamburg.