Zurückweisung des Opfers Joachims und Annas

The Master of the Albrecht Altarpiece at Klosterneuburg takes his name from the major altarpiece he painted for the Augustinian monastery of Klosterneuburg outside Vienna, one of the most important late Gothic commissions in Austria. This panel of the Rejection of Joachim and Anna's Offering depicts the episode from the Protoevangelium of James in which Joachim and Anne's sacrifice at the Temple is refused because they are childless — the humiliation that precedes the miraculous conception of Mary. The subject appears frequently in Marian cycle altarpieces as the initiating event of the story of the Virgin.

The Master employs the Viennese late Gothic manner with oil over panel, organising the Temple scene within an architectural setting that creates a sense of official sacred space. The rejection — the priest's dismissive gesture — is communicated through precisely calibrated figure interaction. Drapery is modelled with broad, fluid passages in the Austrian Gothic convention.