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Description: | This painting is actually a desco da parte or presentation salver commissioned by a noble family to honour the birth of a child. Such objects usually depict a scene connected with childbirth. However, there is some confusion over the subject matter. The most recent opinion favours the story of Joachim in the Wilderness. Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, had longed for children but after years of trying, they despaired. Joachim went into the wilderness to fast and pray. There, he was visited by an angel who told him that Anna would bear his child. This would have been a suitable story to present to a family who had previously despaired of having children. The treatment of the trees in this painting is very similar to that in Matteo di Giovanni's Saint Bernardino Restoring a Child to Life (Suida-Manning Collection). This painting also includes a half-length image of St Bernardino da Siena in the upper left hand corner, surrounded by gold in a similar manner to the celestial head in this painting. The treatment of the foreground plants is very similar to that seen in two panels of Shield Bearing Hercules (Maastricht), dated to the 1480s. | Subjects: | religion (Joachim in the Wilderness: Protoevangelium of James 4) or David guarding his flocks: I Samuel 17: 34-35) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Delli, Dello di Niccolò (Italian sculptor, painter, ca.1403-ca.1470) Æ Attributed to Attributed to Matteo di Giovanni (Italian painter, ca. 1430-1495, active in Siena) Previously attributed to school of Pesellino, Francesco (Italian painter, probably born 1422, died 1457) | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=9167... | Go to resource |
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