The work depicts the
Visitation, an event described by
St Luke in the Bible's New Testament (Luke 1:39–45). In the picture the
Virgin Mary, followed by
Saint Joseph, is climbing up the hill on the left, to be met in the doorway of a house by her older relative
Elizabeth and her husband, the old priest
Zechariah. Luke recounts how Mary, carrying the unborn Jesus Christ, visited Elizabeth who, although past child-bearing age, had also been blessed by God with a child, the future
John the Baptist. When Elizabeth heard Mary arrive she exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy". Tintoretto would return to the theme of the Visitation again c.1588, producing a
second version to be found in the
Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice. ==References==