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The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate

A work made of pen and brown ink with brush and gray wash, heightened with lead white, on tan laid paper, laid down on ivory laid card.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of pen and brown ink with brush and gray wash, heightened with lead white, on tan laid paper, laid down on ivory laid card.

Date:

c. 1553

Artist:

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli
Italian, c. 1510-c. 1569

About this artwork

This drawing was attributed to Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli in 1965 by Konrad Oberhuber (note on verso of mount), who published it as a characteristic early work from the 1530s, when Bedoli’s graphic style strongly reflected that of his teacher, Parmigianino. Oberhu­ber’s identification of the scene as the meeting of Anna and Joachim at the Golden Gate has been generally accepted, although Walter Vitzthum suggested that the drawing represented Ulysses’ reunion with Penelope.

Diane De Grazia proposed a later date, demonstrating that the drawing reveals the influence of Giulio Romano on Bedoli after the latter’s first documented stay in Man­tua of 1552. In its broad sculptural forms and tight contours, the sheet closely resembles several securely dated works by Bedoli from this later period, including a pen and wash preparatory study in the Uffizi for the Adoration of the Shepherds (13179 F.) of c. 1553 in Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma. A. E. Popham noted that the Chicago drawing compares closely with one at Christ Church, Oxford (0419), which Philip Pouncey had attributed to Bedoli and which features a similar couple, tentatively identified as Augustus and the Sibyl, standing beneath a classical arch.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

Title

The Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate

Place

Italy (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1551–1555

Medium

Pen and brown ink with brush and gray wash, heightened with lead white, on tan laid paper, laid down on ivory laid card

Dimensions

18.8 × 12.1 cm (7 7/16 × 4 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection

Reference Number

1922.2987

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/85775/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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