Scenes from the Life of Joachim
Two stained-glass panels from the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Lady Chapel, Paris

Universally admired by historians of Paris, but unfortunately destroyed during the French Revolution, the Lady Chapel of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was distinguished by its wealth of stained glass decoration, which is now scattered amongst many collections, for the most part in North America and Great Britain. The story of these windows is complicated by their having been removed from their original home so long ago. Therefore, although the two panels depicting, on the left, a priest before an altar and, on the right, a shepherd, are now shown together as they have been since the nineteenth century, it is not at all certain they were part of the same scene. These two windows would come from the same bay portraying the life of the Virgin, but from two different scenes: the Sacrifice of Joachim on the right, and the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple, on the left.