Sts Joachim and Anna with God the Father and the Virgin

The virgin’s immaculate conception – the doctrine that she was conceived free from original sin – is here expressively depicted. God sends the young Virgin literally as a gift from heaven to her terrestrial parents, Joachim and Anna. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s small oil sketch of the same scene is on view in Gallery 1700-1800, Room 1.4 (SK-A-3985).