Giovanni di Paolo, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple


Circa 1440
Tempera and gold on wood
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of George Blumenthal, 41.100.4

This Presentation has a fuller cast than many others do, including not only the usual subjects but attendant ladies in contemporary dress, two poor people on the right, several male attendants , and a priest waiting at what appears to be "the door of the tabernacle of the testimony" (Leviticus 12:4) -- which in the Temple should be the area before the Holy of Holies.

More of the Presentation

Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke