After being told by the Archangel Gabriel that she would give birth to the Christ Child (the Annunciation), the Virgin Mary went to visit her cousin, St. Elizabeth, to share with her the good news. Elizabeth told her that she too was with child, a miracle as she was beyond her child-bearing years. That child was St. John the Baptist who would later meet up with Christ in the desert and baptize him. Roger van der Weyden (c. 1435; Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste) depicted the Virgin and Elizabeth meeting at a path that leads to a Gothic church, both tenderly placing their hands on each other's pregnant belly. Jacopo da Pontormo depicted this subject for the Church of San Michèle, Carmignano in 1528-1529, an unusual Mannerist painting with elongated figures and a lozenge-like composition. Barocci created his version in 1586 for the Visitation Chapel at the Chiesa Nuova, Rome, a work so well received that for three days after its installation the people of Rome stood in long lines to view it.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.