Charlemagne; and the Greek apocryphal gospels, or at least stories and extracts from them, began to be circulated about the same period.  From these are derived the historic scenes and legendary subjects relating to Joachim and Anna which appear in early art.  It was about 1500, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, that the increasing veneration for the Virgin Mary gave to her parents, more especially to St. Anna, increased celebrity as patron saints; and they became, thenceforward, more frequent characters in the sacred groups.  The feast of St. Anna was already general and popular throughout Europe long before it was rendered obligatory in 1584.[1] The growing enthusiasm for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception gave, of course, additional splendour and importance to her character.  Still, it is only in later times that we find the effigy of St. Anna separated from that of the Virgin.  There is a curious picture by Cesi (Bologna Gal.), in which St. Anna kneels before a vision of her daughter before she is born—­the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.  A fine model of a bearded man was now sometimes converted into a St. Joachim reading or meditating, instead of a St. Peter or a St. Jerome, as heretofore.  In the Munich Gallery are two fine ancient-looking figures of St. Joachim the father, and St. Joseph the husband, of the Virgin, standing together; but all these as separate representations, are very uncommon; and, of those which exhibit St. Anna devotionally, as enthroned with the Virgin and Child, I have already spoken.  Like St. Elizabeth, she should be an elderly, but not a very old woman.  Joachim, in such pictures, never appears but as an attendant saint, and then very rarely; always very old, and sometimes in the dress of a priest, which however, is a mistake on the part of the artist.

[Footnote 1:  In England we have twenty-eight churches dedicated in the name of St. Anna.]

* * * * *

A complete series of the history of the Blessed Virgin, as imaged forth by the early artists, always begins with the legend of Joachim and Anna, which is thus related.

“There was a man of Nazareth, whose name was Joachim, and he had for his wife a woman of Bethlehem, whose name was Anna, and both were of the royal race of David.  Their lives were pure and righteous, and they served the Lord with singleness of heart.  And being rich, they divided their substance into three portions, one for the service of the temple, one for the poor and the strangers, and the third for their household.  On a certain feast day, Joachim brought double offerings to the Lord according to his custom, for he said, ’Out of my superfluity will I give for the whole people, that I may find favour in the sight of the Lord, and forgiveness for my sins.’  And when the children of Israel brought their gifts, Joachim also brought his; but the high priest Issachar stood over against him and opposed him, saying, ’It