Joachim and Anne

Around 1730 Paul Troger was only a few years back from his time in Italy, and this canvas shows how much he had taken from Venice, and from the painter Giambattista Piazzetta in particular. Piazzetta built his pictures out of a dark ground and a hard, raking light, and that is the method here. Everything that matters sits in the light: the white beard of Joachim, the lined face of Anne under her blue mantle, their hands joined in the middle.

The story comes from early Christian legend rather than the Bible. Joachim and Anne were old and childless when an angel brought them word that they would have a daughter, the future Virgin Mary. Troger sets the angel close behind the couple, arms spread around them, with a small winged child's head looking down from above.