Artwork

Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple

Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple is a tempera painting by the Renaissance artist Andrea di Bartolo. It is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Technique & Style

The work is executed in tempera on a poplar panel, a support and medium combination typical of early fifteenth-century Italian panel painting.

The work is executed in tempera on a poplar panel, a support and medium combination typical of early fifteenth-century Italian panel painting. The painting belongs to a small group of three panels (NGA 1939.1.41, 1939.1.42, and the present work) that share this technique and material, having been produced together in 1400 by Andrea di Bartolo. Poplar was the standard wood support for Sienese panel painters of the period, and the egg-based tempera binder allowed for the layered, translucent handling characteristic of the workshop's output.

History & Provenance

Created around 1400 by Andrea di Bartolo, this tempera on poplar panel was executed as a religious work. The painting's modern ownership history begins with Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Rome, who allegedly acquired it from a Contessa Giustiniani in Genoa. However, scholarly analysis suggests no documented Giustiniani collection existed in Genoa during the early twentieth century; the Contessa likely acted as a dealer or agent who purchased the work on the art market shortly before 1930.

On July 15, 1930, Contini Bonacossi sold the panel to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York as part of a bill of sale including eight paintings. The foundation subsequently gifted the artwork to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1939, where it remains part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection.

The painting is housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it has been part of the collection since a 1939 gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Its accession is recorded as part of the Kress Collection, though the specific inventory number is not detailed in the cited documentation. The work was previously owned by Alessandro Contini Bonacossi before its sale in July 1930. No exhibition history is documented in the sources consulted.

Context

The painting exemplifies Andrea di Bartolo’s early‑15th‑century devotional style, combining Sienese compositional clarity with a focus on charitable narrative. Scholars place it within the artist’s broader output of panel works intended for private chapel use, noting its connection to other panels from the same collection (Boskovits and Brown 2003). Its provenance through the contested Giustiniani collection and subsequent acquisition by Samuel H. Kress illustrates the 20th‑century market for Italian primitives, a trajectory documented in the Kress archive.

Critical reception has emphasized the work’s devotional intimacy and its role in tracing the development of religious imagery in pre‑Renaissance Italy.

Overview

Andrea di Bartolo's painting, "Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple," was created around 1402. Executed in tempera on a poplar panel, this work depicts a narrative scene from the lives of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, the parents of the Virgin Mary. It illustrates their acts of charity and piety, specifically their distribution of food to the needy and their presentation of offerings at the temple.

Subject & Meaning

The painting illustrates a pivotal moment in the apocryphal narrative of Joachim and Anna, focusing on their charitable deeds and religious devotion. The composition features a bustling street scene, densely populated with figures. The artist meticulously rendered various individuals, capturing distinct facial expressions and diverse clothing styles, which contribute to the narrative's human element and the depiction of a vibrant community receiving alms.