The Master of Joachim and Anna carves a medieval hug in the wooden sculpture Joachim and Anna. They embrace each other because Anna is finally pregnant, after a visit from an angel. The child will be a girl, who in turn will also become pregnant in a special way: Mary, mother of Jesus.
The Master of Joachim and Anna carves a medieval hug of Joachim and Anna, the grandparents of Jesus.
In a short video from the Rijksmuseum it is told that Anna told her husband Joachim the news at the city gate. “That moment is depicted here. Joachim is about to kiss her”, the museum tells on the website. The sculpture stands in room 0.1 of the Rijksmuseum, full of beautiful late medieval wood carving.
Anyone who looks closely at the sculpture sees how old Joachim already is. The sculptor indicates Anna’s age by the type of cloth she wears over her head. In those days something like that was only worn by older women.
Master not known by real name
Bringing so much emotion into an oak wood figurine, only wood carvers like Adriaen Van Wesel (circa 1417 – shortly after 1490) could do that in those days. He is therefore one of the few late medieval artists of whom both the name and important work has been preserved. In those days it was customary to deliver sculptures anonymously under the name of a workshop, like the anonymous craftsmen in the workshops ‘the Master of Elsloo‘, or ‘the Master of Hakendover‘.
The real name of the Master of Joachim and Anna is therefore also not known. He is named after his most beautiful preserved sculpture. He must have been active approximately between 1460 and 1480. His workshop would have been in Brabant. Perhaps in Breda?
The story of Joachim and Anna
On the website of KRO-NCRV there is an extensive story about Joachim and Mary, the elderly couple commemorated by the Catholic Church on July 26. Joachim, the grandfather of Jesus, would have been a pious and prosperous man. His marriage to Anna remained childless for so long that he desperately retreated into the desert with his flock and fasted there for forty days. Anna even thought he was dead. But after a long prayer, an angel appeared to Anna, who said that God had heard her prayers and that she would give birth to a child ‘about whom the whole inhabited world will speak’. The angel also warned Joachim, who quickly walked back to the city. When he arrived at ‘the Golden Gate’, Anna was waiting for him and told him she was pregnant.
The child Mary will later, at thirteen, be married off to Joseph, the carpenter. What happened to Joachim and Anna after that, the Bible books do not tell.
Jan Bom, June 4, 2025
