Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate (Dürer)

In the woodcut, the parents of the Virgin Mary, Joachim, and Anne meet at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, upon learning that she will bear a child.

Printed on the reverse of each was a Latin text written by a member of his intellectual circle in Nuremberg, the Benedictine Abbot Benedictus Chelidonius.

He framed many of his works in this way, including Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate, which is outlined by a Renaissance arch.

[3] The artist's mix of classical and sixteenth-century Nuremberg motifs and the northern European setting were utilised to bring the images closer to the audience.

According to the critic Laurie Meunier Graves, "these prints manage to illuminate the sacred while at the same time providing scenes of homely, Renaissance life.