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Seated Saint Anne, with the Virgin and Child
Flanders, perhaps Brussels, ca. 1500
Oak. Height: 34 1/2 in. (88 cm)
Membership Purchase Fund. 73.8
Representations of the Holy Family with Saint Anne, the mother of the
Virgin, in the late Middle Ages emphasized the human genealogy of the Virgin
and Christ, direct descendants from David. In the statue of Saint Anne,
Virgin, and Child, Saint Anne is shown as a wizened old lady, reflecting
her great age at the time she conceived the Virgin, while her daughter is
shown as a young girl, perhaps to emphasize her innocence and purity. A
playful Christ child reaches for the book held by his grandmother. Imposing
and monumental in its pyramidal form, the statue reflects a tradition of
wood carving that was current in the Lowlands at the end of the fifteenth
and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The back of the stool is hollowed
out, and impressions, possibly from hinges, suggest that this statue might
have served some reliquary function. The guildmark of Brussels is purported
to be stamped on the head of Saint Anne, but an examination reveals only
random marks.
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