Ad Imaginem Dei: Joachim and Anne

Showing posts with label Joachim and Anne. Show all posts

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Glorious Saint Anne – The Iconography of Saint Anne

Masaccio, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
Italian, 1424
Florence, Uffizi Gallery

The course of the year has come round, once again, to the middle of July and the start of the period in which the Church turns to honor Saint Anne and her husband, Saint Joachim, parents of the Virgin Mary and grandparents of Jesus. As it has every July since 1892, my home parish in New York will be honoring St. Anne during the nine day novena and feast day, from July 17th to July 26th. The schedule is shown below.

During the ten-day period in 2011, I posted a series of essays on the iconography of Saint Anne. The list of topics is shown below. I refer readers to them. I've updated some with additional images, as I've found them during the past year.

1. Introduction, The Background of Joachim and Anne plus the Annunciation of Mary's Birth
2. The Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate
3. The Birth of Mary
4. The Presentation of Mary in the Temple
5. Saint Anne as Teacher (The Education of the Virgin Mary)
6. Anne, Root of the Tree of Salvation (the Anna selbdritt image)
7. Saint Anne, Grandmother
8. Saint Anne, Matriarch of the Holy Kindred
9. Saint Anne in the Communion of Saints
10. Saint Anne, Patron and Intercessor

I have also published additional images of Saint Anne in annual supplements. To see these click on the year or title:
Saint Anne at the Met
2014
2016
2017
2018
2019

2020

2022

Please note that there was no updates for 2023 or 2024. Circumstances have prevented that work. In 2023, a computer crash destroyed the image files and in 2024 a fall prevented any work being done. I am still trying to catch up.

In the meantime, you may want to join in the daily prayer to Saint Anne, recited during each day of the novena.

You can access the 2025 novena schedule here Eglise Saint Jean Baptiste.

Luca Vescia, Saint Anne and Mary
Italian, 1911
New York, Saint Jean Baptiste Church, Shrine of Saint Anne

Novena Prayer to Saint Anne
"O glorious Saint Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen."

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

2016 -- Saint Anne Update

Bernardino Luini, Saint Anne
Italian, 1523
Philadelphia, Museum of Fine Art

July 26^th is the feast day of Saints Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. They, especially St. Anne, have been important saints for most of the life of the Church and frequently featured in Christian art.

Over several years I have posted various images of Saints Anne and Joachim. The number keeps growing because, as the internet becomes a more widely available tool, the number of museums and libraries that are making their collections available online keeps growing. Further, museums and libraries that were early participants in making collections available by releasing parts of their holdings keep adding to their online presence. Since Anne and Joachim have been important for so long, we are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg of images that probably exist.

Each year I propose to continue to add to the collection of images available through this blog as new ones become accessible. I will endeavor to link these images with the essays about their iconological type which I did in 2011.

So, now I present the 2016 additions to the iconography of St. Anne.

Birth of Mary

Jean Bellegambe, Pregnant Saint Anne
French, c.1500
Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse

Saint Anne as Teacher (Education of the Virgin Mary)

Master of the Getty Epistles, Education of the Virgin Mary
from Book of Hours
French (Tours), 1525-1540
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 452, fol. 140r

Education of the Virgin (ivory carving)
(Chinese?), 17th century
Paris, Musée Guimet, Musée national des Arts asiatiques

Anne,the Root of the Tree of Salvation (the Anna Selbdritt image)

Anna Selbdritt
German (Bavarian), 1472
Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée nationale du moyen age

Circle of Daniel Mauch, Anna Selbdritt
German, c.1500
Marseille_Musée Grobet Labadie

Saint Anne, Grandmother

Defendente Ferrari, Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
Italian, 1528
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

Dirk van Hoogstraten, Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
Dutch, 1630
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

St. Anne, Matriarch of the Holy Kindred

Jean Fouquet, Holy Kindred
from Hours of Etienne Chevalier
French (Tours), 1452-1460
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 1416

Master of the Legend of Saint Anne, Holy Kindred

Netherlandish, 1475

Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Master of the Legend of Saint Anne, Holy Kindred
Netherlandish, 1475
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Attributed to Matthaeus Gutrecht the Younger, Holy Kindred
German, c.1500-1510
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Wood Carving, Holy Kindred
Austrian (Tyrol), c.1515-1520
London, Victoria and Albert Museum

Colin Nouailher, Holy Kindred
French, 1545
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Saint Anne's mother, identified by the name of Emerencia or Emerantia, was often included in the Holy Kindred or the Anna Selbdritt images. But, occasionally, she was accorded an image of her own.

Jan Provost, St. Emerencia, Mother of Saint Anne

Flemish, c.1500

Paris, Musée du Louvre

St. Anne, Patron and Intercessor

Bartel Bruyn the Younger, Catharina von Siegen, nee Kannegiesser, with Saint Anne and Virgin and Child

German, c..1565-1575

Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Prayer to Saint Anne

"O glorious Saint Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen."

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Glorious Saint Anne – Iconography of Saint Anne, Day 1 – Announcing Mary’s Birth

Veit Stoss, Saints Anne and Joachim
German, Painted wood, c. 1477-1489
Krakow, Church of Saint Mary

July 26th is the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, the names traditionally given to the parents of the Virgin Mary, the grandparents of Jesus.

The names first appeared in the Protoevangelion of James, written in the mid-second century. Their real names are unknown, although it is certainly possible that the names we know are correct.

During the nine days leading up to the feast day churches with a special devotion to Saint Anne often hold a special prayer event called a “novena” (from the Latin for the number 9). Here in New York City the parish of Saint Jean Baptiste is blessed to possess a relic of Saint Anne, as well as holding a novena. If you are in the New York area you will be very welcome to join. There is one Mass daily, at noon, at which the relic of Saint Anne may be venerated. On the feastday itself there will be two, one at noon and one at 7:30 PM. Details can be found on the parish website, www.sjbny.org.

And, while I may also attend the novena in person, this is my own personal web offering to Saints Joachim and Anne, their immaculate daughter and their Divine Grandson –- ten essays on the iconography of Saints Anne and Joachim.

Blessed Virgin Mary with Saints Anne and Joachim
From the Lisle Hours
English, 1316-1331
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS G 50, fol. 17

There is no record of Mary’s parents, whatever their names may have been, in the canonical New Testament. So, their names and all the stories we have about them come from non-canonical, apocryphal sources, such as the Protoevangelion of James. That the sources are non-canonical need not concern us, as the story of their lives is not an actual article of faith. Old traditions, transmitted orally, often have large kernels of truth.

Blessed Virgin Mary with Saints Anne and Joachim

From a Speculum humanae salvationis

French, Mid-15th Century

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France

MS Francais 188, fol. 8v

Initially, Joachim and Anne were more honored in the Eastern (Greek-speaking) Church than in the Western (Latin-speaking) Church. However, the inclusion of material drawn from the Protoevangelion into the extremely influential Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) by Jacobus de Voragine (written in the mid-13th century) spread the story of Joachim and Anne to the West, where these saints, and especially Saint Anne, became as popular as they were in the Eastern Church.

In many ways the legends that surround Mary’s parents draw on several sources in both the Old and New Testaments. The theme of barren parents made fruitful in order to produce a special child and to whom this birth is announced by a supernatural messenger occurs in several places. There is the story of Abraham and Sarah, the story of the birth of Samuel, and that of the birth of John the Baptist. It is, therefore, not surprising that the story of Anne and Joachim should have this element as well.

Joachim and Anne

Joachim's Sacrifice Rejected
From an Hours of the Virgin
French (Paris), 14900-1500
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliothek
MS 76 F 14, fol. 29r (detail)

In the story told in the Golden Legend, Joachim, who hailed from Nazareth in Galilee, married Anne, who came from Bethlehem in Judea. Both were descendants of the house of David.

A Sacrifice Scorned

After 20 years of childless marriage they had prayed to God that if they should have a child, they would dedicate that child to His service. At this point, a priest of the Temple rejected a sacrifice brought by Joachim on the grounds that he was childless and, therefore, did not have the standing necessary to offer acceptable sacrifice.

Giotto, Rejection of Joachim's Sacrifice
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel

This rejection so upset Joachim that, instead of returning home, he fled to the countryside and stayed with the herdsmen who tended his flocks and herds.

Giotto, Saint Joachim Among the Shepherds
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel

An Angelic Message

Giotto, An Angel Announces the Birth of Mary to Saint Anne
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel

While Joachim was in the country both he and Anne had angelic visitations.

Giotto, Saint Joachim's Dream
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel

Giotto, Joachim's Sacrifice and an Angelic Visitor
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Arena/Scrovegni Chapel

The angel told each of them that God had heard their prayers and that they were to become parents of a child who would be “from her infancy sacred unto our Lord, and shall be full of the Holy Ghost”1.

Anonymous, The Annunciations to Saints Anne and Joachim
From a Speculum humanae salvationis
Italian (Bologna), c. 1350-1400
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Arsenal 593, fol. 5r

The Annunciation of the Birth of Mary to Saint Anne
From a Fleur des victoires by Jean Mansel
French, c. 1450-1475
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 56, fol. 6r

Bartolo di Fredi, The Annunciation to Joachim
Italian, c. 1383
Vatican, Pinacoteca

Quentin Massys, The Annunciation to Saint Joachim
Flemish, c. 1507-1508
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts

____________________________________________________

1. The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470.
Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931.), Vol. 5, pp. 47-54.

Uniquely among the monotheistic religions Christianity permits the use of images of God. Why? The answer lies in the Christian belief in the reality of the Incarnation. Since God has assumed human nature and form the Biblical prohibition against making images of God ceases to apply. As the second Council of Nicea declared in 787 "Following the divinely inspired teaching of our holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like the figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother of God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted or made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on streets."
(Council of Nicaea II: DS 600)

This decree of Nicea II was promulgated for the entire church, both Greek and Latin speaking, and was a response to the strongly held beliefs of the iconoclasts, who wished to suppress the use of images, which had convulsed the Byzantine Empire and the eastern churches for almost 100 years. In addition, St. John Damascene, last of the Greek Fathers and a staunch defender of images, had written in De imagine ("In Defense of Images") "Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, (Bar. 3.38) I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." (St. John Damascene, De Imagine, Part I, 15-16, from Internet Medieival Sourcebook.)

The ways in which this imaging of the divine has been accomplished in the course of time is the subject of Christian iconography. To quote from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, iconography is "1: pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject; 2: the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or legendary subject; 3: the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a body of art".

The iconography of any subject develops and changes over time. Christian iconography develops and changes too, as reflection on the Gospels and Tradition develops over time and as the act of making art develops and changes as well. This is the background for this blog.

Ad Imaginem Dei

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