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Seated Saint Anne, with the Virgin and Child
Seated Saint Anne, with the Virgin and Child

Seated Saint Anne, with the Virgin and Child

Date1500
MediumOak
Dimensions34 1/2 x 20 x 12 inches (87.6 x 50.8 x 30.5 cm)
CultureFlanders, perhaps Brussels
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineAcquired through the Membership Purchase Fund
Terms
  • Sculpture
  • Books
  • Jesus Christ
  • Madonna and Child
  • Mother and child
  • Saint Anne
  • Saints
  • Virgin Mary
  • Flemish
Object number73.008
Label CopyRepresentations 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. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art," 1998)
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