The Urban Master of Hildesheim
Virgin, Child, St. Anne, and Emerentia
Circa 1515-30
Pine, polychromy, and gilding
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 16.32.208, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916
Emerentia, the mother of Anne, stands behind the other figures. She is identified by the inscription (spelled "Emerentia") at the base of the sculpture. According to Nixon (152) this variation on the Anna Selbdritt is properly called an Anna Selbviert or Emerentia Selbviert.
The tree branch in Emerentia's right hand references a dream of hers in which a prophet said she was "destined to have great descendants" (Moss, 188).
Read more about images of St. Emerentia and St. Anne.
Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.