St. Anne Holding the Virgin and Child

Brabant, early 16th century
Walnut with polychromy and gilding
Metropolitan Museum of Art

This piece eloquently combines the Anna Selbdritt type (St. Anne with Mary and the Child) with the one in which Anne teaches Mary how to read. Anne holds the Word in the form of sacred scripture while Mary holds "the Word made flesh" (John 1:14).

After the early 16th century, northern images of St. Anne began to portray her as quite aged. Here as in the past she is still a woman in middle age. Mary's hair associates her with virgin saints, who in medieval iconography are typically blond. As in the paintings of the 16th century, the baby is naked but posed so as to hide his genitals.

Read more about images of St. Anne.

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