Legend of Voragine also supplied information. For most of the rest, see the
Gospels of the New Testament.
Also see the Meditations on the Life of Christ, gathered together in the late 13th
century by an unidenti¿ ed Franciscan monk called the Pseudo-Bonaventura.
This text was nearly contemporary with Giotto. The Meditations may have
been especially appealing to Giotto because it stressed the human, vulnerable
aspects of Jesus and contained many colorful anecdotes, written in a
direct style.
Let us consider Giotto’s remarkable interpretations of these stories. Joachim
and Anna, the parents of Mary, had been childless and were quite elderly.
Barrenness was considered a sign of God’s disfavor, and Joachim had
been expelled from the temple for this reason. In his absence, his worried
wife received an angelic visitation. The Annunciation to St. Anne, the third
scene, shows the effective dollhouse architecture, with an open front like a
stage setting. The angel can be seen coming through Anne’s window. The
annunciate angel tells Anne that she will conceive and bear a child to be
named Mary.
In the open porch at the left, a young woman holds a distaff, a rod entwined
with wool from which thread is spun. This domestic object has a dual
signi¿ cance. In Classical mythology, it is an attribute of one of the Fates and
refers to the thread of destiny that is spun out. In pictures of the Annunciation,
it is an attribute of the Virgin Mary, thus it has been adopted for the less
commonly represented story of the annunciation to Mary’s mother.
Joachim’s Sacri¿ ce shows the rejected Joachim, accompanied by a shepherd
and a small group of animals, making a sacri¿ ce of a sheep to God. The ¿ re
still burns, and an angel and the hand of God appear to signal acceptance
of Joachim’s offering. The landscape, miniature though it is, is expressive
in the direct use of diagonals cutting an illusionistic shallow space into the
painting. The animals are naturalistic and delightful.
The Dream of Joachim depicts Joachim sleeping while two shepherds stand
nearby. An angel appears in his dream to tell Joachim of Anne’s imminent,
unexpected fertility and the conception of Mary. The angel tells him to go to