St. Anne Teaches Mary to Read

Oil on canvas
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Passau, Germany

The painting may be dated by Mary's tête de mouton hairstyle, which was popular in the mid-18th century. By this time images of Anne teaching Mary had mostly supplanted the Anna Selbdritt type, in which Mary sits on Anne's lap and holds the Christ Child on hers. In both types it was common to give the two women clothing that emphasized their closeness, such as this painting's chiasmic pattern: red mantle over blue robe for Anne, blue mantle over red robe for Mary.

Another feature of St. Anne portraits after the Middle Ages is that they usually picture the saint as well along in years, in this case with salt-and-pepper hair and somewhat sunken cheeks.

One would think that the man in the background should be Anne's husband, Joachim. But why is he so swarthy?

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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.