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| Charles LeBrun, The Sleeping Infant Jesus or Silence French, 1655 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
How the figure of Saint Anne evolved from the huge and powerful Saint Anne of the Anna selbdritt to the grandmotherly figure of the 17th and later centuries may be followed fairly well from surviving paintings and statues.
In her book, Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe Virginia Nixon distinguishes two different types of the Anna selbdritt. The first, in which Anne encompasses both the figures of Mary and Jesus we have already looked at. The second type, which Prof. Nixon calls the “bench type” shows Anne and Mary seated together on the same level, as if on a bench. 1 Jesus is sometimes shown as seated or held by Mary, sometimes by Anne, and sometimes He appears between them. Some examples are shown below:
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| Master of the Beaufort Saints, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne Prayers added to the Beaufort-Beauchamp Hours English (London), 1401-1415 London, British Library, MS Royal 2A XVIII, fol.13v |
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| Master of the Gold Scrolls, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne From a Book of Hours South Netherlands, 1425-1450 London, British Library MS Harley 2846, fol. 40v |
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| Nicholas Gerhaert van Leyden, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne German, 1475-1495 Berlin, Bode Museum |
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| Master of the Housebook, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne German, 1490 Oklenburg, Landesmuseum |
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| Madonna and Child with Saint Anne Flemish, Carved Walnut, Early 16th Century Sold at Christie's, Amsterdam March 22-23, 2011 |
From these and other examples, especially those which show an interaction between Child and Grandmother, the later images of Saint Anne develop. In addition, the image of Anne herself began to change. She began to age so that, from the vigorous maturity of her image in the late 15th century, by 1600 she had become an elderly woman.
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| Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne Dutch, 1500 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliches Museen zu Berlin |
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| Madonna and Child with Saint Anne Miniature added to Book of Hours Dutch, 1500-1550 London, British Library MS Harley 2896, fol. 14 |
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| Madonna and Child with Saint Anne from Book of Hours South Netherlands (Bruges), ca. 1500 London, British LIbrary MS King's 9, fol.53v |
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| Andrea Sansovino, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne Italian, 1512 Rome, Church of Sant'Agostino |
She also began to move from a primary role to a secondary one. In many instances the key position that she held around 1500 had become, by the beginning of the next century, a subsidiary one. From the forefront of the picture, she began to move to the side or to the background.
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| El Greco, Holy Family with Saint Anne Greco-Spanish, c. 1595 Toledo, Hospital Tavera |
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Bronzino, Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist Italian, c. 1534-1540 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum |
During that same time her former position was assumed by the figure of Saint Joseph. Joseph, who up to that time had been presented (when presented at all) in the subordinate role, begins to move forward and to grow younger as Anne recedes and grows older.
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| Rubens, Holy Family with Saint Anne Flemish, c. 1630 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Jusepe de Ribera, Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint Catherine of Alexandria Spanish, 1649 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Sebastian Bourdon, Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist French, c. 1650 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
By the end of the 17th century the Holy Family as we now think of it, comprising Jesus, Mary and Joseph, had taken form.
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| Murillo, The Two Trinities Spanish, c. 1675-1682 London, National Gallery |
The more recent images of Saint Anne show her solely in her role as mother, accompanied only by Mary.
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| Saint Anne Quebec, Shrine of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, Chapel of Saint Anne |
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| Saint Anne 20th Century New York, Church of Saint Jean Baptiste |
Although, in some ways, this seems a stripping of her former mystique in others it brings us back full circle to the Saint Anne images of the 14th and 15th centuries, for Mary, her daughter, is the Mother of the Word Incarnate.
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1. Virginia Nixon. Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe, University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004, p. 137.
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1. Virginia Nixon. Mary’s Mother: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Europe, University Park, PA, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004, p. 137.
© M. Duffy, 2011/2012. Images refreshed, 2022.
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