"Then Joachim, in the following night, resolved to separate himself
from companionship; to go to the desert places among the mountains,
with his flocks; and to inhabit those mountains, in order not to hear
such insults. And immediately Joachim rose from his bed, and called
about him all his servants and shepherds, and caused to be gathered
together all his flocks, and goats, and horses, and oxen, and what
other beasts he had, and went with them and with the shepherds into
the hills; and Anna his wife remained at home disconsolate, and
mourning for her husband, who had departed from her in such sorrow."
(MS. Harl.)

"But upon inquiry, he found that all the righteous had raised up seed
in Israel. Then he called to mind the patriarch Abraham,--how that God
in the end of his life had given him his son Isaac: upon which he was
exceedingly distressed, and would not be seen by his wife; but
retired into the wilderness and fixed his tent there, and fasted forty
days and forty nights, saying to himself, 'I will not go down to eat
or drink till the Lord my God shall look down upon me; but prayer
shall be my meat and drink.'" (Protevangelion, chap. i.)

Giotto seems here also to have followed the ordinary tradition, as he
has represented Joachim retiring unattended,--but met by two of his
shepherds, who are speaking to each other, uncertain what to do or how
to receive their master. The dog hastens to meet him with joy. The
figure of Joachim is singularly beautiful in its pensiveness and slow
motion; and the ignobleness of the herdsmen's figures is curiously
marked in opposition to the dignity of their master.

* * * * *