Verso Composition of two Figures representing the Meeting of Joachim and Anna

The drawing shows two figures in profile, leaning toward one another and clasping hands in a moment of greeting. This sketch represents the reunion of the parents of the Virgin Mary, capturing a sense of motion through light, rhythmic line work. It is a preparatory study, likely for a larger religious composition, executed during the artist's Roman period.

The scene derives from the apocryphal Protevangelium of James, a text that deeply influenced Renaissance devotional mysticism regarding the divine lineage and the concept of the Immaculate Conception. Raphael's work represents the High Renaissance ideal of harmonizing sacred narratives with Neoplatonic grace and human proportion.